Does Florida have anything to hide at Alligator Alcatraz? There’s one way to know | Opinion

Editor’s note: On Wednesday, after this editorial was posted, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration invited state lawmakers and members of Congress to attend a 90-minute tour of Alligator Alcatraz on Saturday afternoon, the Herald reported.

The stories relayed this week to Miami Herald reporters by the wives of detainees at Alligator Alcatraz painted a bad picture for the newly-opened and hastily-built immigration detention facility in the middle of the Everglades: toilets that didn’t flush, temperatures that went from freezing to sweltering, giant bugs and little or no access to showers or toothbrushes.

The state, which plans to house 3,000 or more people in heavy-duty tents on the site west of Miami, has called these descriptions “untrue.”

Who should Florida taxpayers, who are paying for this, believe? Especially when details about what’s happening inside Alligator Alcatraz remain murky at best?

A group of Democratic lawmakers who tried to access the facility last week were denied entry — just days after Republican officials and President Donald Trump had toured the site without issue. The group of Democrats said that, by law, legislators are allowed to visit state correctional institutions without advance notice. The Florida Division of Emergency Management argued the law doesn’t apply in this case because Alligator Alcatraz is not a “state correctional institution.” We wonder if Republican lawmakers would have gotten the same response.

As the old saying goes, sunshine is the best disinfectant. Why not allow the elected representatives of the people, no matter their party affiliation, and the media to see what’s happening inside those tent walls, especially when the land where the detention center sits belongs to Miami-Dade County? The state used questionable emergency powers to commandeer the property.

Speaking to Fox News over the weekend, Florida Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said he didn’t know the lawmakers were coming to the site and that, when they showed up, the facility was in the process of taking migrants into custody from ICE. He said Alligator Alcatraz has “above average standards” of treatment of detainees and that his agency was getting ready to schedule a tour of the site for lawmakers of both parties.

That must happen soon, and Democrats are right to keep the pressure on for that to happen.

County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava on Tuesday wrote a letter to Florida’s Republican attorney general, James Uthmeier, requesting that the state give the county “monitoring access” to the facility via video and allow county oversight teams to visit in person. Levine Cava also asked for weekly reports on conditions at the makeshift jail.

In an opinion piece published in the Herald Tuesday, Levine Cava, a Democrat elected countywide, pushed for more transparency at Alligator Alcatraz: “Though the state commandeered this site through the executive powers of the governor, Miami-Dade is the property owner — and we believe our request for access is warranted.”

The detention camp is being built and managed with public money on public land. The people there are being detained in the name of the U.S. government. Citizens have the right to know what is happening there. Without that access, we are left to wonder what’s going on there.

Were elected Democrats grandstanding by visiting the facility and then denouncing their inability to get inside? Maybe so. But that doesn’t change the underlying issue. If conditions at the detention camp are fine, the state should allow others to see the place.

That’s only reasonable. Before the detention center even opened, a rainstorm caused leaks and flooding. There are concerns about the environmental impacts of this sudden construction on the sensitive Everglades. And given the reports from family members of detainees of rough conditions, there’s even more reason for transparency.

Originally, the Trump administration said it would go after people who live in the U.S. illegally and had committed a crime. That’s clearly no longer true, as the administration continues to yank Temporary Protected Status (TPS) away from large groups of foreigners — most recently from Nicaraguan and Honduran immigrants. Are those people, many of whom have lived here peacefully for decades, among the inhabitants of Alligator Alcatraz?

Such questions could be answered with transparency, with actual visits to the facility. Blocking legislators and others from inspecting the detention facility makes us ask one question: What does Florida have to hide?

Click here to send the letter.

This story was originally published July 9, 2025 at 4:00 PM.