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PolitiFact Florida
WLRN has partnered with PolitiFact to fact-check Florida politicians. The Pulitzer Prize-winning team seeks to present the true facts, unaffected by agenda or biases.

PolitiFact FL: It's not just the ‘worst of the worst’ criminals in Alligator Alcatraz, as officials said

WLRN Public Media | By Madison Czopek | PolitiFact
Published July 18, 2025 at 1:00 PM EDT
Work progresses on a new migrant detention facility
Rebecca Blackwell
/
AP
Work progresses on a new migrant detention facility dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz," at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility in the Florida Everglades, Friday, July 4, 2025, in Ochopee, Fla.

WLRN has partnered with PolitiFact to fact-check Florida politicians. The Pulitzer Prize-winning team seeks to present the true facts, unaffected by agenda or biases.

President Donald Trump, federal officials and Florida Republicans touted the remote Everglades immigration detention centers — dubbed Alligator Alcatraz — as a place to detain people deemed the "worst of the worst."

There are criminals with convictions for violent crimes among the first 750 people detained at the facility. But early reports show they are in the minority.

"Very soon, this facility will house some of the most menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet," Trump said July 1 after touring the rapidly constructed site surrounded by wetlands. The first detainees arrived the next day.

Trump advisers and Florida officials used similar descriptions over the next two weeks, including "monsters" and "most heinous of the most heinous."

But within two weeks of the facility’s opening, early reports found that people with criminal convictions made up a fraction of the early Alligator Alcatraz detainees.

The Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times found that of the more than 700 people detained, more than 250 people have no criminal convictions or pending charges in the U.S. One third — or about 233 people — have criminal convictions, the report said. While some of those convictions are for violent offenses such as attempted murder, not all are; charges include traffic violations and illegal reentry, the Herald/Times reported. The Associated Press reported that people facing no criminal charges, including a 15-year-old boy, were being detained at the site.

READ MORE: Emails show DeSantis administration blindsided county officials with plans for 'Alligator Alcatraz'

Following these reports, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told PolitiFact that the absence of a U.S. criminal record is "irrelevant" because she said many migrants in the U.S. illegally face charges of crimes including rape, assault and terrorism in their native countries or other countries. Jackson said each migrant committed a crime by entering illegally, although at least two people in the reports so far entered through legal pathways.

"The Trump Administration will continue carrying out the largest mass deportation operation in history by removing public safety threats from American communities," Jackson said.

On July 16, days after the first media investigations about sparse criminal backgrounds among the population were published, Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., characterized the migrants at Alligator Alcatraz as "military-age males, and a lot of them have criminal records."

Here’s how officials’ descriptions of who would be housed at the Everglades facility are clashing with reality.

President Donald Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and others, tour "Alligator Alcatraz
Evan Vucci
/
AP
President Donald Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and others, tour "Alligator Alcatraz," a new migrant detention facility at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility, Tuesday, July 1, 2025, in Ochopee, Fla.

What did officials say about who would be detained at Alligator Alcatraz?

Officials talking about plans for Alligator Alcatraz largely echoed Trump’s assertions that the facility would be used for some of the "most menacing" or "vicious" people detained by immigration authorities.

White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller said "violent criminal aliens and cartel thugs" had made "multiple attempts" to escape immigration detention facilities, justifying the need for a facility with harsh natural barriers.

"A facility like this ensures the security of the officers who work there and ensures the security of the public, lest there be an attempted jailbreak," Miller said July 1 on "The Ingraham Angle." "And again we are dealing with the worst of the worst — the most heinous of the most heinous."

On June 30, before Alligator Alcatraz opened to detainees, a Homeland Security Department statement highlighted the "worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens arrested in Florida." The list included 11 people the department said were convicted of homicide, arson, child abuse and forcible rape, producing and distributing child pornography, kidnapping and sexual assault of a child under 13 and other charges.

"Alligator Alcatraz, and other facilities like it, will give us the capability to lock up some of the worst scumbags who entered our country under the previous administration," said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

The statement said the 11 people listed represented "the types of violent criminal illegal aliens who could end up being detained at Alligator Alcatraz."

A week later, the Republican Party of Florida began using people from that list to promote the detention facility and sell "Alligator Alcatraz" themed merchandise.

"The WORST OF THE WORST are being deported and sent to places like Alligator Alcatraz, including Roberto Mosquera-Del Peral who was convicted of homicide and a member of the Latin Kings," read one Florida GOP X post.

(Screenshot from X)

The Florida GOP X account pushed 11 different versions of these promotional images, garnering thousands of views.

None of those people, including Mosquera-Del Peral, were on the list of detainees reported by the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times. We contacted the Florida GOP and asked for information showing these people were at Alligator Alcatraz and received no response.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s public database shows two of the men from the list were in ICE custody, one at Miami Federal Detention Center and another at Krome North Service Processing Center. The Florida Department of Corrections database shows that three of the people listed were deported.

Early media reports show at least 250 people with no documented criminal history detained at Alligator Alcatraz

Some of the people detained at the facility have violent criminal histories. But data and anecdotal news reports about the first month’s arrivals show that Alligator Alcatraz was not filled with only the "worst of the worst."

The Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times team found that more than 250 of the roughly 700 people being held at or slated for transfer to the detention center in the Everglades have immigration violations but no criminal convictions or pending charges in the U.S.

"A third of the detainees have criminal convictions," the report said. "Their charges range from attempted murder to illegal re-entry to traffic violations. Hundreds of others only have pending charges."

The Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times report highlighted two cases:

  • Authorities detained Denis Alcides Solís Morales, a 56-year-old Nicaraguan man, and sent him to Alligator Alcatraz after the truck he was a passenger in was pulled over for an unsecured load, according to Solís Morales’ nephew Walter Jara. Jara said his uncle arrived in the U.S. legally in 2023 under a humanitarian parole program and has a pending asylum application. The list obtained by the Times/Herald team mentioned immigration violations for Solís Morales, but no criminal convictions or pending charges.
  • The Orange County Sheriff’s Office detained an unnamed 37-year-old Brazilian man who entered the U.S. lawfully on a tourist visa in 2022 and then applied for asylum, according to his lawyer. His lawyer said the man was issued a five-year work permit while his asylum application is pending; he owns a business in Florida. He was arrested on a DUI charge in 2024 and was detained while attending a probation hearing June 3. 

The Associated Press didn’t identify specific people, but cited detainees’ attorneys reports that people with no criminal records were being held at Alligator Alcatraz, including:

  • A 15-year-old Mexican boy with no criminal charges.
  • A man in his 50s who had no criminal record and who has a stay of removal that bars the government from legally deporting him as he appeals. 
  • A 36-year-old Mexican man who came to the U.S. as a child and is part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that shields people from deportation if they arrived in the U.S. as children. He was detained after he was picked up for driving with a suspended license in Orange County, Florida. 

So far, people being held at the site do not appear in ICE’s public database.

The facility "will definitely not be" entirely filled with migrants who meet the advertised "worst of the worst" description, said Rick Su, a University of North Carolina School of Law professor and immigration expert.

There aren’t "that many worst of the worst left," he said. "Past presidents have all prioritized the worst of the worst. Even blue states and sanctuary cities have eagerly cooperated for the worst of the worst."

ICE data supports this assessment.

More than 70% of people detained by ICE had no criminal convictions, the agency’s data as of June 29 shows. About 28% of people ICE has detained have criminal convictions and another 25% face pending criminal charges, the data said.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier’s office identified six people whom spokesperson Jeremy Redfern described July 10 as "monsters awaiting deportation within Alligator Alcatraz." The list included:

  • Wilfredo Alberto Lazama-Garcia: Redfern said Lamaza-Garcia was "wanted for murder and aggravated robbery in Venezuela" and his U.S. crimes included "conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government in Oklahoma." PolitiFact was unable to independently confirm these details through federal and state record searches. 
  • Eddy Lopez Jemot: Redfern’s statement listed murder, arson and assault among his charges. We confirmed that Lopez Jemot was convicted of arson and pleaded no contest to a 2017 aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge. We found no murder conviction in Florida’s Department of Corrections database. 
  • Lazaro Rodriguez Santana: Florida records show he was convicted of attempt to commit sexual assault and failure to register as a sex offender. 
  • Jose Fortin: Florida records show Fortin was convicted of attempted second-degree murder in 2022 and sentenced to more than six years in prison.  
  • Oscar Sanchez: Redfern’s statement described Sanchez as an "MS-13 gang member" and listed charges including resisting arrest, assault and conspiracy to commit murder in New York. PolitiFact was unable to independently confirm these details. 
  • Luis Donaldo Corado: Florida records show Corado was convicted of burglary of an occupied dwelling in Miami-Dade County. 

CBS News also reported that Cuban musician Leamsy Izquierdo, who performs as Leamsy La Figura, was recently moved to Alligator Alcatraz. Izquierdo, a U.S. permanent resident, was arrested on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and battery, Newsweek and CBS News reported.

The nature of the Alligator Alcatraz facility might prevent authorities from using it to detain the worst of the worst, Su said. The abandoned airport-turned-detention center is made up of portable trailers and large white tents; inside, chain-link fences cordon off rows of bunkbeds.

"The worst of the worst likely need far more ‘hard’ structures for security within," he said. "You should not be mixing the worst of the worst with the general population."

PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird and Staff Writer Grace Abels contributed to this report.

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Madison Czopek | PolitiFact
Madison Czopek is a staff writer for PolitiFact.
See stories by Madison Czopek | PolitiFact
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