DeSantis dismisses claims that Alligator Alcatraz violated detention standards
Por Kylie Williams — POLITICO – TOP Stories
TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Gov. Ron DeSantis brushed off a new report Monday from the Department of Homeland Security’s independent watchdog that found the immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz” kept detainees in small cages and did not comply with a slew of federal and state standards.
During a news conference in Lakeland, DeSantis said he hadn’t read the report but added the facility had been inspected and defended the state’s immigration enforcement tactics. The detainees sent to Alligator Alcatraz had “serious, serious issues,” the governor said, and detaining them in the facility saved lives and resources.
“I think some of this stuff is going to be characterized in a certain way, no matter what,” he said. “But I can tell you, when they set it up, their goal was not only to meet the federal standards, but to actually exceed the federal standards. That did require more resources.”
According to the new report from the DHS Office of Inspector General, Alligator Alcatraz confined detainees to “small metal enclosures” that facility staff described as “calming areas” for up to almost two hours. Over a six-month period, 79 detainees were kept in the cages. The report said the practice was “unlike any OIG team has observed in ICE facilities.”
“The use of such restrictive spaces is highly unconventional and does not align with standards for humane treatment,” the report said.
The report was based off of an unannounced visit to the facility in January. Although DeSantis said Alligator Alcatraz sought to exceed federal standards, the inspector general report found that facility staff could not clearly identify which standards they followed.
“The absence of well-defined standards at detention facilities increases the risk that detainees may not receive appropriate care,” the report said.
The inspector general also found that detainees were subject to cramped living spaces. The facility kept up to 32 detainees in units that should have held no more than 11 people to meet state standards, the report found.
The report also highlighted concerns from detainees that they did not have access to clean drinking water and had to bathe in bug-infested showers. Some detainees also did not have access to legal materials and telephones, which could have prevented them from obtaining legal representation, the report said.
The governor announced in June that Alligator Alcatraz, which was hastily constructed last year in a high-profile effort to advance President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda, was officially shutting down. Yet months later, the state continues to be plagued by questions about the facility’s cost, environmental impact and treatment of detainees.
The DeSantis administration belatedly delivered a report to lawmakers Friday that projected the state’s emergency trust fund, which has been used to fund Alligator Alcatraz, would be at a $1.5 billion deficit under a worst-case scenario. State legislators voted to put another $240 million into the fund the same day. There were 592 outstanding invoices, according to the report, many of them connected to detention center operations.
Fonte: POLITICO – TOP Stories
