Following a state-approved visit Tuesday to Alligator Alcatraz, U.S. Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, a Democrat from Orlando, said he wants state and federal officials to disclose where remaining immigrant detainees are being transferred amid reported plans to permanently close the detention facility.
“While the closure of this facility would be an important step, shutting the doors alone is not enough," Frost said. "We must ensure that people are not simply transferred from one abusive or unsafe situation to another."
"Most importantly, there must be accountability for the civil and human rights violations, accountability for the environmental destruction inflicted on one of the most sacred ecosystems in the world, and accountability for the misuse of taxpayer dollars to subject our immigrant neighbors to this failed experiment in suffering," he added.
Frost, who previously toured the immigrant detention center in the Everglades, said it was clear during his latest visit that operations are "winding down," noting that new detainees are not being accepted.
READ MORE: Florida's Alligator Alcatraz may close. Trump, DeSantis' statements about center clash with facts
"What stuck out to the most to me is on my past visits, the processing center was full of staff and detainees and this time it was completely empty—which clearly shows this facility is no longer operating at the capacity it once did," Frost said.
He said Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Trump administration should never have opened Alligator Alcatraz, saying "it will forever be a stain on Florida’s history."
Last July, the DeSantis administration opened the facility to support the immigration crackdown by the Trump administration, who visited the detention center last summer. It is located in the Big Cypress National Preserve, about 50 miles west of Miami.
Inside the compound’s large white tents, rows of bunkbeds are surrounded by chain-link cages that house the detainees. As many as 1,500 immigrants have been held at the facility.
Vendors who supply and help run the facility were told earlier this month that the closure could be as soon as June, according to reports by The New York Times and CBS News Miami.
