detention centers

Critics say it is the reason why more detainees are risking their lives to protest inhumane conditions and legal rights violations, in the form of widespread hunger strikes.

The migrant detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz is closed, but much about it remains unresolved. One aspect of the South Florida facility has drawn far less attention, though: the name itself, and the long history of associating alligators with racist ideas about people of color.

ICE says ‘millions’ of immigrants have left or been deported in Trump’s crackdown. But where are the receipts?

The DeSantis administration spend spent nearly two-thirds of Florida’s emergency fund last fiscal year on fighting illegal immigration, dwarfing spending for severe weather, international rescues, and other emergency missions for which the fund was created.

South Florida immigrant advocates and families of detainees held a news conference Wednesday said they want to call attention to what they say are appalling conditions detainees are forced to endure daily while in federal custody.

Immigrant advocates allege the facility is overcrowded and that detainees are exposed to excessive heat, and have inadequate access to food, water, beds and bathrooms.

Speaking at a news conference outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building off SW 145th Avenue in southwest Broward County, several speakers said detainees have told them of inadequate access to bathrooms and beds, and severe overcrowding.

Immigrant detainees across at least 33 states allege in court documents that the government is failing to provide them with adequate medical care. An investigation by The Associated Press and KFF Health News found that people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement are being denied access to doctors and medications for maladies ranging from dental pain to pregnancy to prostate cancer.

Environmental groups say the expected closure of a detention center in the Florida Everglades is linked to their lawsuit. The center, nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz," could close in the next month or two. A federal appellate court recently allowed it to remain open but sent the case back to a lower court.

A lawyer for two of the detainees says the beating happened after they complained about not having phone access on April 2. The lawyer says the guards taunted and then attacked the detainees. Guards punched one of her clients in the face and broke another detainee's wrist. Phone service was restored the next day without explanation.

A Haitian man confined at an Arizona immigration detention center for months after the denial of his asylum application has died in the hospital. The man's brother says Wednesday that 56-year-old Emmanuel Damas told officers he had a toothache in mid-February but was not sent to a dentist.

Attorneys say detainees at Florida's "Alligator Alcatraz" still struggle to reach their lawyers, despite state claims that access problems are fixed. On Thursday, two lawyers filed statements with a federal court that their clients cannot call them using staff cellphones. They also say they still cannot make unannounced visits.