Alligator Alcatraz

State and federal lawmakers got a glimpse Saturday inside the controversial and hastily built detention center in the middle of the Everglades. And depending on who you ask, the conditions of the so-called Alligator Alcatraz are comforting like home, or flat out appalling.

Democratic lawmakers are condemning Florida’s new Everglades immigration detention center after making a state-arranged visit. They are describing crowded, unsanitary and bug-infested conditions that officials have dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.” But Republican legislators said they saw a clean and well-run facility while on the same tour Saturday. The visit came after some Democrats were blocked earlier from viewing the 3,000-bed detention center. The state rapidly built it on an isolated airstrip surrounded by swampland.

People held at the brand new Florida immigration detention center that officials have dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" say worms turn up in the food, toilets don't flush and floors flood with fecal waste. They complain of a lack of access to attorneys and medical care. Government officials dispute the conditions described by detainees, their attorneys and family members. But they have provided few details on the facility and have denied media access. Florida is opening the facility to state lawmakers and members of Congress for a site visit Saturday, July 12.

Environmental groups Friday gave formal notice that they could sue federal and state agencies over alleged violations of the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act at an immigrant-detention center in the Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”The notice was in addition to a lawsuit filed June 27 that alleges violations of the National Environmental Policy Act, a federal law that requires evaluating potential environmental impacts before such a project can move forward.

A Florida political contingency greeted President Donald Trump as he landed in the state’s new Immigration Detention Facility, known as Alligator Alcatraz.

As they urge a U.S. district judge to halt an immigrant-detention center in the Everglades, environmental groups are pushing back against Trump administration arguments seeking to distance the federal government from responsibility for the project.The state last week began operating what has been dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” at a remote site surrounded by the Everglades and the Big Cypress National Preserve, as Gov. Ron DeSantis and other officials try to help President Donald Trump’s mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit last month seeking a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to put the project on hold until legal wrangling is resolved.

Controversy comes to the swamps of the Everglades after The State of Florida commandeered a defunct airfield and morphs it into an Immigration Detention Center.

The Trump administration Thursday argued a federal judge should deny a request to block operation of a detention center in the Everglades for undocumented immigrants, saying Florida has been responsible for the project dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”U.S. Department of Justice attorneys filed a nine-page document opposing a request by environmental groups for a temporary restraining order to halt operation of the facility. Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit last week, accompanied by the request for a temporary restraining order.And the first group of immigrants has arrived at the new detention center deep in the Florida Everglades, a spokesperson for Republican state Attorney General James Uthmeier told The Associated Press.

Environmental groups say damage from Alligator Alcatraz is already obvious in light pollution and other issues.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis confirmed Monday that President Donald Trump may be making a visit to the "Alligator Alcatraz" site being prepared in the Everglades in eastern Collier County.That confirmation came after Special VIP Movement Notifications and Notices for Airmen were issued for both Palm Beach Airport, near where the Trump's Mar-A-Lago residence is, and Ochopee, the location designation for the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport where the Alcatraz site is located. There is also a petition on Change.org seeking to stop the project.