The Trump administration has taken a hard line against most immigration, and the state of Florida has supported that mission. Both administrations argue that detaining and deporting non-citizens will reduce violent crime in the U.S. and make room for citizens and lawful residents to prosper.
We examined that approach: listening to firsthand accounts of families impacted by it, digging through data, and researching what the law says about immigration enforcement and civil rights.
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Alligator Alcatraz: What’s happening inside the secretive, state-run facility?
Maria Travieso was in the throes of treatment for Stage 3 breast cancer when her husband, Luis Travieso, was detained by the Florida Highway Patrol in October.
Unable to work or drive, Maria relied on Luis not just as her emotional support, but her ride to treatment and sole provider.
"He's my husband, he's my everything," Maria Travieso said.
Luis Travieso was born in Cuba and had been living in the United States for decades, and ended up at the immigration detention camp in the middle of the Everglades known as Alligator Alcatraz. His family was told if he were removed from the country, he’d be sent to Mexico because he did not have the proper documentation to return to Cuba.
"Once he goes to Mexico, he can never come back here," said Ulissa Montero, Maria’s daughter.
"We wake up every morning and it just kind of feels like a nightmare that we're like living through," Montero said.
The Florida Department of Emergency Management built Alligator Alcatraz in eight days last summer, less than six months into President Donald Trump’s second term.
WPTV cameras were allowed inside when the facility opened July 1. The president and members of his administration also visited that day.
"This facility will house some of the most menacing migrants — some of the most vicious people on the planet," Trump said during a press conference.
At the time, Alligator Alcatraz was the first immigration detention facility that was run by a state, instead of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or a private contractor hired by the agency.
Other similar concepts have since been proposed and opened in other parts of the U.S. (The matter of who is ultimately in charge at Alligator Alcatraz has played a key role in an ongoing environmental lawsuit challenging the facility, which sits in the middle of the Big Cypress National Preserve.)
"I want to express my tremendous thanks to the state of Florida for embracing this opportunity and being a true partner. They've worked so well with the federal government,” Trump said at the opening of Alligator Alcatraz.
Then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem promised the state-run facility would be held to ICE detention standards.
"Listen, our job is to uphold the law," Noem said. "This is a state-of-the-art facility—air conditioned. Isolated, though, which is very helpful.”
Since then, families have shared stories from their loved ones inside Alligator Alcatraz.
"The conditions are just absolutely terrible in there," Montero said. "It's freezing. The food is cold... [Luis] doesn't have a toothbrush, no toothpaste, no deodorant. Like, his toenails are touching the ground, his beard is down to his belly button.”
"Only at the end of the week, only Saturday, they go to bathe in front of a group. I believe there are 32 people in each cage," the wife of a Guatemalan detainee told WPTV last summer, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from immigration authorities.
"They was feeding us three times a day, and it wasn't bad," said Jose Gonzalez, who works as a restaurant manager in Palm Beach. "There's like, open toilets, and that you figure out how to cover, to be more private."
Gonzalez was detained during a traffic stop in December along with his nephew, telling WPTV he was pulled over by law enforcement for tinted windows during a supply run for a food truck he owns.
Following a public outcry, Gonzalez was released from Alligator Alcatraz after 12 days there.
"I didn't sleep the whole night. So I literally tried to close my eyes for five minutes when I heard my name and someone knocked me and, 'Oh, you need to go. Just grab your personal stuff. You need to go. You need to go fast, fast,’" Gonzalez said.
Andrea Jacoski is the acting director of the Immigration Law Clinic at the University of Miami.
"ICE discretionarily releasing people from their custody without a court order? I have not heard of that," Jacoski said, regarding Gonzalez’s case.
Jacoski has also had clients inside Alligator Alcatraz. She discussed an outdoor solitary confinement unit that WPTV has learned about through multiple sources.
"We actually had a client who was placed in the ‘sun cage’ strategically for a number of hours. [He] was not allowed to use the bathroom or receive any water, and the whole time, he was five-point shackled at his ankles [and] wrists,” Jacoski said. "They held him in this cage—chain-link cage—for several hours in the sun. At one point, when he asked for water, an official brought him a cup of water and then poured it out in front of him.”
"It was unbelievable," Jacoski said. "They said they put him in there after a dispute about a garment that he had, and whether or not the garment he was wearing is a pair of boxers [that] were issued by the facility, or if he had somehow smuggled them into the facility."
Gonzalez also talked about the cage.
"Yeah, I see [guards] bringing [detainees] and leave them for like, four hours," Gonzalez said.
WPTV Investigates
'Torture': Organization condemns immigration detention facilities in report
The cage is also referred to as "The Box" in an Amnesty International report, following the nonprofit’s own investigation into Alligator Alcatraz.
In April, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Florida) made an unannounced visit to Alligator Alcatraz and said she spent about three hours touring the facility.
“I came away with the very strong reaction that this facility is inhumane,” she said on a call with reporters after her visit. “The way detainees are housed is cruel and unnecessary.”
Asked about the allegations of poor conditions inside the facility, a spokeswoman for the Florida Division of Emergency Management said they comply with ICE detention standards.
Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin, who has since resigned from that role, told me in an email, "All detainee facilities are clean. Any allegations of inhumane conditions are false. When will the media stop peddling hoaxes about illegal alien detention centers and start focusing on American victims of illegal alien crime?"
What are the impacts of immigrant detentions on crime?
On the day the Alligator Alcatraz detention facility opened, the president outlined his plan: "I ran on the issue of illegals and we have to get them out."
"We are going after murderers and rapists, traffickers and drug dealers, and getting them off the streets and getting them out of this country," said Noem.
Claims that detaining and deporting non-citizens will reduce violent crime in the U.S. are a central part of the Trump administration’s argument behind its aggressive approach to immigration.
A White House spokesman sent me links to press releases from various dates. Topics included the arrests of 7,000 alleged gang members during Trump's first year back in office, a 50% decrease in fentanyl trafficking at the southern border in 2025 compared to 2024, and crime data showing overall decreases in violent crime nationwide in 2025. That data set showed that downward trends in some crime categories started before Trump was sworn in.
People impacted by the immigration crackdown who spoke with WPTV often said their detained loved ones have no criminal history. Court records verify those claims.
When Jose Gonzalez, the restaurant manager, was detained, he said he was confused by the process because he'd never been arrested before.
U.S. Marine Christopher Alonso said his father was taken into custody in January on his way home from breakfast with his wife and Christopher’s younger siblings.
"[They] came out of nowhere. Pulled him over. They told him to get out the vehicle and put him in handcuffs," Alonso said. "My dad asked, what was the reason he pulled him over? Didn't give him a reason."
"He contributes, he goes to church, he pays his taxes," Alonso said of his father.
"No one's targeting the people living their lives. The ones we're worried about are very much the violent criminals,” said Florida’s Lt. Governor Jay Collins, in an interview with WPTV. "We need to focus on the egregious, the criminals, the people who truly put everyone's lives at risk.”
Asked about cases like Alonso’s, Collins said, “That is not what we're targeting. That is an anomaly that is part of this process, and people are going to be found and held accountable.”
ICE data strongly suggests the case of Alonso’s father is not an anomaly.
"The large majority of people being arrested by ICE don't have any criminal convictions," said David Hausman, an assistant professor at UC Berkeley Law and the co-director of the university’s Deportation Data Project.
Hausman and his colleagues file public records requests for raw ICE data and publish it online.
"I think it's important for people to be able to use the government's raw data, the data that the government itself is relying on, in order to be able to check the government's claims," Hausman said.
Data as of last October shows arrests of non-citizens with violent convictions increased by 30% since Trump took office. Arrests of non-citizens with non-violent convictions doubled, and arrests of non-citizens with no convictions increased seven times over.
Palm Beach County
'Trauma and fear': Local leaders discuss impact of immigration enforcement
Of those in custody as of last October, Hausman found around 70% had a clean criminal record. About 10% had been convicted of violent crimes.
"Though, of course, it fluctuates over time," Hausman noted.
A 2024 study of Texas law enforcement data funded by the U.S. Department of Justice showed undocumented immigrants were less likely to commit a felony than both documented immigrants and U.S. citizens.
Collins told me he still thinks Florida is “absolutely” a safer place since the immigration crackdown began.
"For those people who came here illegally and didn't follow the law of the land, and are putting up a home here, I think there are programs specifically suited to them that they should take part in and square up their paperwork," Collins said.
Alonso said he had applied for Parole in Place, a program that allows immigrant family members of U.S. service members to remain in the U.S. Like many families who spoke to WPTV about their detained loved ones, Alonso’s father also had a pending asylum claim.
Wasserman Schultz said during her April visit to Alligator Alcatraz that she was given a census of detainees in the facility. Of the 1,499 detainees there, 52% were classified as “low risk” or “medium-low risk,” according to the congresswoman. She said ICE determines the classifications and did not answer her questions about criteria.
Asked about how the data squares with his claims of public safety, Collins said, “I don't think you can pass over the fact that they came here illegally. Are they the priority? No. If they get caught up and they're pulled over and their immigration status isn't correct, well then there's an accountability process for sure.”
“But for the 50% of people we took off the streets that are violent criminals, that's well worth that because it's saving people's lives,” Collins added.
Of five families we have spoken to, one told us their loved one did have contact with the criminal justice system in the past.
Luis Travieso was convicted on a drug possession charge with intent to sell more than 20 years ago and spent three years in prison. His wife and stepdaughter showed documentation that he was complying with the terms of his release. That included annual check-ins with immigration authorities to show that he was staying out of trouble and paying his taxes.
"He doesn't even have a speeding ticket, parking tickets, you know, he is very ashamed of that past. And I believe that in the last 20-something years, he's worked very hard to make up for that mistake," his stepdaughter, Ulissa Montero, said.
Travieso's family says he was detained two weeks after his most recent check-in.
"I think the administration made an impossible promise. It said it wanted to pursue mass deportations of criminals, and that's just impossible, because there aren't very many non-citizens in the United States who've been convicted of crimes, and those people were already being prioritized for deportation under previous administrations," Hausman said.
“So there's no way to have mass deportations of criminals, and if the administration wants to ramp up enforcement, as it is doing, it has no choice but to go after people who've never had contact with the criminal justice system," he added.
Both state and federal governments also argue that removing immigrants from the U.S. makes room for citizens to prosper.
"If you care about balancing the budget, the single most impactful step we can take is to fully reverse the Biden migration invasion," President Donald Trump said.
"It crowds schools, it crowds medical, it crowds housing," Gov. Ron DeSantis said.
A study by the Cato Institute, a Washington think tank widely considered to be libertarian, found that immigrants generate more tax revenue than the average person in the U.S., but consume fewer government services. The study found that from 1994 to 2023, immigrants generated a net positive of more than $10.6 trillion.
What is 'the right way' to immigrate?
Speaking at a press conference at Alligator Alcatraz last year, Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia had a message: "If there's any illegal immigrant listening to my voice right now, self deport. Use the app. We will get you home. Do not come here, because you will be removed. If you want to come here, come here, legally. Come here the right way."
The definition of legal immigration in the U.S. is narrowing, leaving hundreds of thousands of people who entered the country lawfully facing uncertain futures and potential deportation.
Farah Larrieux runs a South Florida marketing company focusing on the Haitian community. She relies on Temporary Protected Status, which she’s had for more than 15 years, to live and work legally in the U.S.
"I never thought that I would leave Haiti," Larrieux said. "But I still felt that at some point that Haiti was too small for my dream.”
Immigration authorities grant TPS to migrants from countries with conditions deemed so dangerous that people cannot return safely. People with TPS are authorized to work and are not removable from the U.S. A person is not eligible for TPS if they have been convicted of one felony or two misdemeanors.
"Because of TPS, I've been able to rebuild my life," Larrieux said. "Going back to Haiti is like a death sentence for me.”
Of the 15 countries designated for TPS by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the department moved to remove that status from 11 of them, including Haiti.
Losing TPS would immediately strip people of their ability to work and pay taxes. One federal judge wrote in a ruling that TPS holders generate $5.2 billion in annual revenue, and that stripping them of that status would remove workers from "labor-starved sectors" like health care.
Larrieux, who once worked as a broadcaster in Haiti, said she dreams about becoming the most successful Haitian woman entrepreneur of the world.
"Because instead of taking the time to focus on my business, to developing myself as an entrepreneur, I am here now taking the time to fight for my right to exist," Larrieux said.
Many of the moves to un-designate TPS countries were challenged in federal court. The U.S. Supreme Court is currently considering a case involving TPS for migrants from Haiti and Syria, which could affect more than 350,000 people who are currently living lawfully in the U.S.
Jacoski said the uncertainty over TPS is just one example of irregularity in immigration law.
"So even though we talk about this concept of lawful migration, there are ways to think about migration that isn't necessarily someone coming in on a visa," Jacoski said. "People talk a lot about lawfully immigrating to United States or entering the right way, and it's just not necessarily true, because those who are requesting asylum or fear-based protections are doing so in accordance with law."
"And people who are in these proceedings, litigating their cases, are still those who are being caught up in this massive enforcement mammoth that we're seeing today," she continued.
Jacoski said rules change once someone is caught in the enforcement mechanism.
"DHS used to have published policy memoranda that they need to consider the interests of U.S. citizen children or caretakers for U.S. citizen children in the detention and potential removal of someone," Jacoski said, telling me DHS no longer appears to be following the guidance in those memos.
Jacoski also pointed to access to counsel issues at Alligator Alcatraz, which have also been at the center of a federal lawsuit.
"There's attorneys being able to visit with their clients, an inconsistent application of what the rules are. There are barriers to people inside actually accessing their attorneys themselves," Jacoski said.
Jacoski also noted changes to where people are sent once removed from the U.S.
"We're hearing about people that are being deported to countries they have no connection to, all the way into different parts of Africa," Jacoski said.
According to Human Rights First, a nonprofit that monitors ICE flights, 27 of the 2,463 removal flights between February 2025 and February 2026 carried people to countries they were not from.
When asked if the law is on the side of those being deported to third countries, Jacoski answered, "No.”
A federal judge agreed, writing in a 2025 ruling that deporting a person to the wrong country where they are likely to be persecuted or tortured is "not fine. Nor is it legal." The federal government is appealing that ruling, arguing in court filings that judges do not have the jurisdiction to intervene.
I tried to learn more about how the administration justifies its policy changes. The Department of Homeland Security, which saw the departures of Secretary Kristi Noem and Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin since I started requesting interviews for this report, did not respond to emails.
The White House offered an interview with Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson, but she did not show up. A communications staffer did not respond to a request to reschedule, instead sending an email stating Jackson had to respond to unspecified “breaking news.” The email also cites nationwide decreases in violent crime in recent years as a rationale for the shifts in policy.
The impact on American children
The immigration crackdown is also impacting U.S. citizens born to immigrant parents.
The Florida Immigrant Coalition is fielding an unprecedented volume of calls from families in crisis, including a new trend of American-born children leaving the United States to reunite with removed parents.
Renata Bozzetto, deputy director for the Florida Immigrant Coalition, told me she has never seen this specific crisis in her more than 15 years with the organization.
"This is not a simple relocation. This is exile. This is, we are forcing U.S. citizens out of the country so they can seek safety," Bozzetto said.
Bozzetto said the organization has provided flights to children in South Florida, including "more than a dozen in Palm Beach County."
When asked if the current situation is sustainable for the coalition, Bozzetto was clear: "No, it's not sustainable."
A native of Brazil, Bozzetto said she came to the U.S. seeking a better future.
"Dreams, hopes, belief that we could have a life in which we would thrive," Bozzetto said.
Bozzetto is now one of Florida's leading voices for immigrants.
"We need to remember who our neighbors are. We need to find each other in our humanity," Bozzetto said.
Palm Beach County
'I fear for my family': Vigil for children impacted by immigration enforcement
The crisis is also impacting U.S.-born children who remain in the community, including U.S. Marine Christopher Alonso and his younger siblings. Alonso said his father was the main provider for the family before being removed, leaving his mother scared to go out.
"It’s just really traumatizing for them," Alonso said. "My dad's been the main provider. With him gone [it’s] really hard for them, especially if the kids need something or my mom needs something herself, and she’s scared to go out in case something happens, something like that happens again."
Despite being a U.S. citizen, Alonso told me he finds himself looking over his shoulder.
"It's just really hard knowing that what we do for this country, for the government, and how they treat us back," Alonso said.
Despite the struggles, advocates like Bozzetto and political hardliners like Lt. Gov. Collins are hoping for a path forward.
"I have two children. I cannot afford not to have hope," Bozzetto said.
Collins said it is time to address the issue.
"We have to have meaningful immigration reform," Collins said. "We can do better and I think it's time to have those conversations on a national basis.”
Bozzetto emphasized the importance of recognizing the contributions of immigrants.
"When we meet eye to eye, when we talk about what we do, what we benefit from, having a robust, vibrant society and community, having immigrant labor, but also having immigrant culture, having immigrant compassion, immigrant innovation. When we talk about that, it's not a threat. We really are in this together," Bozzetto said.
These local impacts come amid leadership changes at the federal level. Kristi Noem was fired as Secretary of Homeland Security on March 5. Her replacement, Senator Markwayne Mullin, was sworn in less than three weeks later.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.