"dangerous and unlawful conditions" inside Alligator Alcatraz pose serious health implications say health professionals [View all]

https://www.wusf.org/politics-issues/2025-07-23/alligator-alcatraz-serious-health-issues-detainees-say-health-workers-migrant-advocates

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"Dangerous and unlawful conditions" inside the state-managed immigration detention camp in the Everglades pose serious health implications for hundreds of detainees, says a group of health professionals, immigrant advocates and family members of those being held.

"This isn't a detention facility — it's a public health experiment gone horribly wrong," said Sebastian Caicedo, Miami-Dade regional director at Florida Rising. "People are being exposed to viruses, sewage, and extreme trauma. It's state-sponsored cruelty, and it has to stop."

Caicedo was among several medical professionals who appeared at a protest and press conference Tuesday morning outside the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, the site of the detention center Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials call "Alligator Alcatraz."

"The internment camp is an atrocity in our community," said Tessa Petit, the co-executive director, of the Florida Immigration Coalition, one of the most influential statewide immigrant advocacy groups.

"The conditions under which people are detained raise major medical concerns," she said, raising questions about facility's toilets and sink systems and high temperatures inside the "cages" where detainees are being housed.