By Stacy M. Brown
NNPA Senior National
Correspondent
Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon has condemned the state’s $450 million immigration detention facility in the Everglades—dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz”—as an inhumane, politically motivated stunt that is detaining people accused of minor infractions like driving without a license or running a stop sign.
Speaking on the Black Press of America’s “Let It Be Known” program, Nixon described what she called a “hyper-curated, super-sanitized tour” of the sprawling compound. “What I saw was a waste of taxpayer dollars,” she said. “Countless SUVs, law enforcement officers, military personnel—many of whom claimed to be volunteers—are all being paid to carry out a political stunt.”
During her tour, Nixon said she observed more than 30 people crammed into cages with just three restrooms. “There was no privacy,” she said. “Folks were getting water from the toilet.” Detainees she saw in shackles included asylum seekers awaiting court dates. “These are construction workers, people who care for our elderly and our children. They are not hardened criminals.”
Nixon, who filed legislation to improve prison conditions in Florida, said the facility is consistent with a state correctional system that historically fails to provide adequate care and basic needs. She recounted that state officials rushed her group off-site, citing a supposed security lockdown as rain began, preventing lawmakers from seeing whether flooding, previously documented on video, was recurring.
“They kept saying a storm was coming,” Nixon said. “When we insisted on staying, suddenly there was a lockdown, and we were escorted out. We don’t believe it was a real security issue.” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has defended the project as necessary to detain what he has called the “worst of the worst.”
But Nixon said the facility’s population tells a different story.
“My daughter is 18 and she just got a ticket for running a red light. Under this logic, she could end up there too,” she said.
The facility comes as public support for harsh enforcement has waned. According to Gallup polling, only 38% of Americans now favor mass deportations, down from 47% last year. Approval of Donald Trump’s handling of immigration stands at just 35% nationally, and among Hispanic Americans, only 21% approve.
While the Trump administration has promoted expanded detention and deportation policies, Gallup found that 78% of Americans support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Nixon said Florida’s approach is out of step with public sentiment and legal norms. “They couldn’t even tell us who was mixed together—people who committed no crime at all and people waiting for due process,” she said. “And since when does the state of Florida have the jurisdiction to deport people?”
The lawmaker and four colleagues have sued DeSantis and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, claiming the state violated their statutory rights to conduct unannounced inspections. DeSantis has called the lawsuit “frivolous” and suggested countersuing the lawmakers. Nixon argued that resources wasted on detention should be directed to Floridians’ needs.
“They are closing schools in Duval County, our property insurance rates are the highest in the country, we have people with disabilities waiting years for help, and instead, they are spending hundreds of millions on this,” she said.
As reports circulate that Florida could soon expand detention camps, Nixon urged Americans to pressure state and federal leaders. “If we don’t stop this here, it’s coming to your backyard next,” she said. “They just revoked TPS for Haitians. What happens when they say, ‘I thought you were undocumented’ and pick up Black Americans without due process?”
Nixon warned that the growing disregard for civil rights should alarm all Americans. “Everything Trump has said he would do, he has done. We can’t take this lightly.” She encouraged citizens to call lawmakers, sign petitions, and demand accountability. “We should all be outraged,” she said. “If they can do this to them, they can do it to us.”
