The organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) released its latest report alleging abuse and degrading treatment in detention centers in Florida, so the operation of the new facility, "Alligator Alcatraz," increases the wave of abuses against immigrants.

According to the organization, A human rights crisis is developing, largely hidden behind concrete walls and barbed wire in Florida.

Our findings also give us insight into what is happening at other facilities in our state, such as "Alligator Alcatraz," a new immigration detention complex in the pristine Florida Everglades with capacity for about 3,000 detainees, to which the media has not yet had access, said the organization.

According to Nicole Widdersheim, HRW's deputy director in Washington, said, beginning in late January, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained large numbers of people in Florida, including many who had lived and worked in our communities for decades, for deportation purposes. Many have been held at the Krome North Services Processing Center, operated by Akima Global Services, and two other facilities: the Broward Transitional Center and the Federal Detention Center in Miami. "Visiting these centers in May, Human Rights Watch and our partners Americans for Immigrant Justice and Sanctuary of the South found that at the height of the overcrowding crisis at Krome, between February and March, cells built for 66 people were overcrowded with as many as 155," he wrote.

Furthermore, among the accounts he cites, he shares that detainees recounted sleeping head to toe on thin mats or cots, while others were held in cramped processing rooms for over two weeks, with only one open-air bathroom.

In other cases, detainees were kept chained for long periods on buses, without food, water or access to functional restrooms.

Overcrowding has led to many other abuses and indignities at Krome. There were no hot breakfasts, food portions were cut in half, and detainees were forced to eat in their bunks instead of in the mess hall because the facility was overcrowded.

My organization spoke with cellmates and family members of two individuals, one Ukrainian and one Haitian, who died after their requests for medical care were repeatedly denied. One HIV-positive man vomited blood after a particularly traumatic transfer from Krome to FDC and did not receive his essential daily medication. Another man with undetectable HIV was unable to access his medication for days," he insisted.

Therefore, the organization accused that the overcrowding of immigrants detained in Florida could have been aggravated by the rapid expansion of immigration control measures in the state since January 20, 2025.