Lawmakers sue to force DeSantis to grant unannounced Alligator Alcatraz visits

Siena Duncan, Miami Herald on Jul 10, 2025

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Five Democratic lawmakers turned away from Alligator Alcatraz last week are asking the Florida Supreme Court to force the DeSantis administration to allow unannounced visits to the migrant detention center in the Everglades.

In a petition filed Thursday with the state’s high court, the lawmakers argued that a state statute authorizing members of the Florida Legislature to visit correctional institutions “at their pleasure” applies to the site – erected in days on an airstrip in the Big Cypress National Preserve.

The lawmakers attempted to enter the facility – created to hold thousands of migrants targeted for deportations by the Trump administration – the day after the first detainees arrived. The Democrats were refused entry on July 3, saying they were repeatedly told they could not enter due to “safety concerns.”

“The DeSantis Administration’s refusal to let us in wasn’t some bureaucratic misstep,” the lawmakers wrote in a joint statement. “It was a deliberate obstruction meant to hide what’s really happening behind those gates.”

The lawsuit by state Sens. Shevrin Jones and Carlos Guillermo Smith, and state Reps. Anna Eskamani, Angie Nixon, and Michele Rayner was filed one day after the DeSantis administration invited state and federal lawmakers to attend a guided, 90-minute tour of the facility on Saturday. It names Gov. Ron DeSantis and Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie as the defendants.

“Yesterday, the Florida Division of Emergency Management invited all Florida legislators to tour Alligator Alcatraz this weekend,” said Sierra Dean, a spokeswoman for the governor’s office. “Today, five Democrat legislators responded by filing a frivolous lawsuit demanding access to Alligator Alcatraz. The State is looking forward to quickly dispensing with this dumb lawsuit.”

Since the detention center opened, detainees housed in cells within heavy duty tents at the site have complained about poor conditions, including non-functioning toilets, large bugs and extreme temperatures. The governor’s office and the Division of Emergency Management have said those characterizations are false.

In a press release announcing the lawsuit, the lawmakers bashed the tour as a “staged, scripted and sanitized” visit – echoing an argument made Wednesday by Democratic members of Congress.

The lawmakers argued that unannounced inspections are important to ensuring the detention center is well run, and a power they are afforded under a state law that grants lawmakers the ability to conduct surprise inspections at correctional facilities.

“Oversight cannot be choreographed,” they said. “This tour is not about transparency, it’s about containment. The people detained inside deserve more than a photo op.”

A spokeswoman for the Division of Emergency Management, which is overseeing the detention center, said in a statement that the lawmakers were turned back because the facility is not under the Department of Corrections’ control — and therefore is not a correctional institution.

“The legal authority cited by the legislators does not extend to this facility in the manner requested,” said Stephanie Hartman, deputy director of communications for the Division of Emergency Management.

But the suit calls the state’s argument “absurd and disingenuous at best,” arguing that it is irrelevant that the Department of Corrections is not managing the detention center.

Jones has indicated that he will attend Saturday’s tour. It is unclear whether the others will go, too.

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