Hundreds held at Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ many with no criminal record

Hundreds of immigrants are being detained in Florida’s new immigration detention facility, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” and, according to the Miami Herald, many of them have no criminal record. The newspaper reports that it received a list of names of people being held at Alligator Alcatraz from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

The list shows more than 250 people who are listed as having only immigration violations, but no criminal convictions or pending charges in the United States, the Miami Herald reports. Their only offenses committed were civil immigration violations.

Some detainees face criminal or pending charges

One-third of the detainees have been convicted of crimes, with charges ranging from serious offenses, like attempted murder, to minor ones, such as traffic violations. Hundreds more have pending charges and have not yet been convicted. Reporters haven’t verified each case, so the full context of the charges or convictions is unknown, according to the Herald.

The Herald searched 747 detainee names and reports that only 40 names appeared in ICE’s public database, and most were listed at other facilities. The Alligator Alcatraz list is incomplete and may change as detainee numbers shift.

Facility located in remote swampland

The immigration detention facility, situated approximately 50 miles west of Miami at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, is located in the heart of the Everglades. Migrants are being held in high-security dormitories similar to a prison compound.

President Donald Trump toured the facility on July 1.

“We’re surrounded by miles of treacherous swamp land, and the only way out is really deportation,” Trump said after the tour.

Lawmakers tour site following lawsuit

Over the weekend, on July 12, Florida lawmakers toured the facility after suing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, R, for access following an earlier denial. Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D, who is Jewish, called it an “internment camp.”

“They should not put humans in cages in the middle of swampland in the Florida Everglades. It’s outrageous. It’s inhumane,” Wasserman Schultz said Saturday.

Trump administration immigration policy

Officials with the Trump administration have said their number one immigration priority is getting criminal migrants off the streets. However, border czar Tom Homan has repeatedly said that if someone is in the country illegally, they’re “on the table.”