(NewsNation) — With the recent opening of the “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center in Florida, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is looking at expansion for other states to have similar facilities.
Noem says she wants to double the capacity of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers across the U.S. as the Trump administration promises the largest mass deportation effort in history. Her focus is mainly on five Republican-led states.
The development comes just a day after Democratic lawmakers got a limited tour of “Alligator Alcatraz” and denounced the facility for its overcrowding and unsanitary conditions. One of them was Florida Democrat Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.
“The cruelty is the point,” Wasserman-Schultz said. “This is a stunt. I mean, dropping flimsy infrastructure in the middle of the Everglades, in a swamp where they bragged about it being surrounded by alligators and pythons, I mean, the whole point is to, you know, look tough, like they’re trying to go after bad hombres.”
Florida Republican Blaise Igoglia, who was also on the tour, rebuked Wasserman-Schultz’s statements.
“I hate to say it, but they are flat out lying,” he said. “It’s performance art on behalf of the Democrats. We walked through the facility, and it’s well-kept, well-lit, it’s clean.”
Noem added that detention centers at the federal level, like “Alligator Alcatraz,” are held to a higher standard than most local, state, and federal prisons, pointing out the amount of security footage made public.
“We took cameras in there,” Noem said. “We will take cameras in there and show people what these facilities look like. Because if you compare them to what happened under the Biden administration and under the Obama administration, these centers are at the highest levels.”
The Florida Immigration Coalition says they’ve been in touch with family members of people detained at Alligator Alcatraz, who claim the facility is overcrowded and there’s a lack of medical attention for detainees.