DACA recipient detained at Alligator Alcatraz, attorney says. ‘We don’t know why’
A DACA recipient who has been in the country for two decades is being held at Alligator Alcatraz, the remote detention center in Florida’s Everglades, the man’s legal team told the Miami Herald Wednesday afternoon.
Attorney Phillip Arroyo said his client, whom he isn’t identifying out of fear of retaliation, arrived in the United States from Mexico when he was a minor. The man, now in his early 30s, has legal status through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, according to the attorney.
Arroyo said his client was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a “misunderstanding” during a traffic stop. He was sent to Alligator Alcatraz on Friday and remains at the facility, Arroyo said.
Considering his client’s legal status, Arroyo told the Herald he’s confident he will be able to get an immigration bond.
“The narrative is that only violent criminals are being sent to Alligator Alcatraz,” Arroyo said. “We don’t know why [he was sent there] because he has legal status.”
The man, Arroyo said, was arrested on a charge of driving without a valid driver’s license. However, he did have a valid driver’s license at the time of the traffic stop, Arroyo said, and prosecutors are reducing the misdemeanor to a civil citation.
Attorney Josephine Arroyo, who is also representing the man along with her husband Phillip, told the Orlando Sentinel that he was issued a citation last year that was mailed to an address where he no longer lived. That led to his arrest when he was pulled over in Orange County.
The man’s family paid a bond to release him from jail, but he was then detained by ICE, Phillip Arroyo told the Herald. He was held at the Orange County jail when his family and attorney lost contact with him.
His loved ones didn’t hear from him for days, he said, until he called his brother from the Everglades, where the state of Florida has been detaining migrants caught up in President Donald Trump’s mass-deportation campaign. Only one of three phones in his cage pod works, according to Phillip Arroyo, who said he was able to speak with his client on Tuesday for the first time.
During their conversation, Arroyo said his client described poor conditions at the facility: The food was rotten. The toilets were flooded with excrement. The air conditioning broke, and detainees had to swat away mosquitoes in the sweltering heat. He said he wasn’t allowed to shower for four days.
Similar complaints have been reported by other detainees. But Stephanie Hartman, a spokesperson for the state Division of Emergency Management, told the Herald Wednesday evening that the allegations about the conditions of the facility were “completely false” and that Alligator Alcatraz “meets all required standards and is in good working order.”
The state has invited state and federal lawmakers to tour the facility on Saturday.
Arroyo said he tried to set up an attorney visit but was told by Alligator Alcatraz officials that there was “no information” about a visitation policy.
“Apart from the horrors in that facility, the lack of access to an attorney is troubling to me,” he said. “It’s a Sixth Amendment violation.”
Hartman said detainees do have access to phone and video calls with their attorneys, and has told the Herald that visitations could be arranged upon request. She didn’t confirm whether lawyer calls are being recorded or monitored, and did not respond to questions about how visitations can be arranged.
Miami Herald staff writer Ana Ceballos contributed to this report
This story was originally published July 9, 2025 at 7:58 PM.
