Detainees at a notorious Florida immigration facility say guards have cut off their access to food and water as a coercive tactic to pressure them into signing English-language documents they cannot read or understand.
In a recorded phone call to an immigration advocacy group, more than six detainees described conditions at the facility, known informally as "Alligator Alcatraz," where they reported that water supplies had been withheld for days and meals were being denied. The men identified themselves by their names and cell locations during the call to the Workers Circle, though the organization withheld their identifying details due to their expressed fears of retaliation.
One detainee described the escalating pressure. "They took all the water, and they don't want to give us water," he said. "They haven't given us lunch, and they are mistreating us here. They wanted to make us sign a paper in English that we don't know what that paper says."
The detainee recounted that guards had withheld medication from people with serious medical conditions, including diabetes and high blood pressure, apparently as additional leverage. On Thursday morning, chants of "agua, agua" echoed through the facility when water was cut off entirely.
The water quality itself became a flashpoint days before supplies were withheld. Detainees reported that the water distributed over the previous three days contained visible contaminants. "The water has pests, the water has a bad taste. You open the water tubs and they have mosquito larvae," one man explained. Another detainee characterized the supply as "stinky and rotten," saying he had witnessed mosquitoes emerging from it.
Noelle Damico, director of social justice for the Workers Circle, characterized the pattern as an intensification of pressure tactics designed to force deportation agreements. "They're being asked by guards to sign documents that they cannot fully see, nor do they understand," she said. "This has been going on for several days, and right now they've stopped giving them water."
She described the water conditions as deliberately degraded. "The water in the past three days has been unusually disgusting with mosquito larvae, dirt in it, and tasting absolutely rotten. So that predates today, now they've removed the water. They were fed breakfast this morning, but lunch was withheld. This is an outrageous violation of basic human rights under international and national law."
The facility, operated by Florida's Department of Emergency Management on behalf of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, opened as a tented detention center on a little-used airport in the Florida Everglades. In its nearly one year of operation, it has accumulated a record of reported abuse that includes denying detainees access to immigration lawyers, abruptly transferring inmates between facilities without notice, and pressuring people to consent to deportation without legal representation.
State officials announced last month that the facility would close in June, but the timeline has not been clarified. When contacted for comment, the Department of Emergency Management did not directly address the current allegations. In a statement issued on May 29 following a previous report that a diabetic detainee was denied medication, communications director Stephanie Hartman said medical facilities and staff, including a pharmacy, are available 24/7 to detainees. The department has also previously denied any mistreatment or abuse at the site.
Author James Rodriguez: "Withholding water and meals to coerce signatures on documents people cannot understand isn't a detention practice, it's extortion dressed up in bureaucracy."
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