An immigration attorney tells WPTV her client is inside "Alligator Alcatraz," the new state-run migrant detention center in the Everglades, and it has infrastructure and sanitation problems.
Her account is one of several stories from inmates and attorneys about the facility’s challenges during its initial opening week. Those challenges include people in overcrowded cells without access to medical care, inadequate food and water to shower with, and navigating mosquitoes and sleep deprivation conditions from lights never turning off.
WATCH: Attorney says water is being transported in Home Depot buckets
A spokesperson for the Florida Division of Emergency Management said all the allegations against the facility over the last few days are false.
"Bugs and environmental factors are minimized in the facility and all plumbing systems are working and operational," said Stephanie Hartman, deputy communications director for the state agency running the facility.
Gina Fraga, an immigration attorney based in Lake Worth, told WPTV she doubts the claims from the state after talking with her client inside the facility on the phone.
She said her client described eight cells inside the facility with 32 men in each cell. Fraga said her client told her about getting naked for a shower, then everybody discovered there was no running water.
"There was a water issue, so they weren't able to take a shower for five days," she said. "He told me that they went to take a shower two days ago, everybody got naked. Then when they got there, there's no water running."
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Detainees allege inhumane conditions at Everglades detention center
Fraga said she heard on Tuesday that her client was able to shower. But she also said her client was only able to get five pumps of bug spray or pesticide to protect himself from the mosquitoes surrounding the facility.
"They are bringing water in buckets from Home Depot," Fraga said. "This is super unsanitary!"
She declined to name her client because she’s scared of retaliation. But Fraga said her client was initially held in an ICE holding facility in Riviera Beach. She said her client’s came up as “not found” in ICE's online detainee locator system, then she realized he was transferred to the first state-run migrant detention facility after his wife received a phone call over the weekend.
Fraga said she still can't access her client because there’s no protocol on how attorneys can either enter the facility or call their clients.
FACILITY WAS STATE'S SOLUTION TO FEDERAL OVERCROWDING PROBLEM
WPTV has previously reported overcrowded conditions within Krome Detention Center, after conversations with immigration lawyers in March. At the time of that report, data from ICE showed the facility had 605 people, but the capacity was listed at 581 based on congressional budget documents. More recent data showed the number of people held at the facility increased to almost 700.
Katie Blankenship, an attorney, said she's seen her clients sleeping on the floors and struggling to get food and medical care. She said she's "haunted" by dozens of women banging on doors at the Krome North Service Processing Center, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility west of Miami.
WATCH: Florida lawmakers blocked from inspecting detention site
There's people sleeping on the floor," Blankenship said. "I've had a client tell me they're forced to sleep literally next to the toilets. They're being stuffed into the bathroom. So, they're sleeping, literally their face, underneath a toilet, and they're rotating them off and on the buses."
Gov. Ron DeSantis mentioned using state resources to increase bed capacity at a press conference in May. He said that if asked by the federal government, he would allow the Florida Department of Emergency Management to work with the Department of Homeland Security to help build more detainment spaces like "Alligator Alcatraz," and another facility at Camp Blanding near Jacksonville.
INMATES COMPLAIN ABOUT INHUMANE CONDITIONS AT ALLIGATOR ALCATRAZ
Leamsy Izquierdo, a self-described Cuban urban artist, was arrested for a violent incident last week and told NBC 6 he has been at the detention center in the Everglades since Friday. He said it's been four days since he showered, and he's not being served enough food.
"There is no water here to bathe," Izquierdo told Telemundo 51. "They give you food only once a day, food that even has worms in it."
He also said the detention center lights are always on and described the mosquitoes as "the size of elephants" in a phone call. Three other inmates, according to NBC 6, had similar complaints, including a Colombian national who said he’s been there three days without his medicine.
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