DACA recipient from Orange County among those at Alligator Alcatraz, attorney says

One of the first transfers from the Orange County Jail to Alligator Alcatraz is a 36-year-old who is legally in the United States and was picked up for driving with a suspended license, his attorney told the Orlando Sentinel.

The man is a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, a 2012 program that shields undocumented people who arrived here as children from deportation.

Josephine Arroyo, his Orlando-based attorney, declined to name her client fearing retaliation against him at the Everglades facility. She’s only spoken to him once since his arrival there early Saturday, and Arroyo said the man described swarming mosquitoes, non-working toilets and “horrific food.”

“It’s not a detention facility that is going to be up to par with the requirements necessarily, so yeah, it’s horrible,” she said. “Never in a million years did I think our client would be there, especially given his legal status and his charge of driving with a suspended license.”

The man’s circumstances deepen the emerging questions about the use of the new detention center in the Everglades, which President Donald Trump said would hold “the worst of the worst” when he visited upon its opening last week.

Reporting by the Sentinel and other media outlets suggests multiple detainees sent to that facility have committed only minor crimes in the U.S., and Arroyo contends her client should not be in detention at all.

Arroyo said her client was issued a citation in Seminole County last year for driving with a suspended license and the court mailed him a notice to appear to an address where he no longer lived.

Because he missed the court hearing, a warrant was issued, she said.

Earlier this year, he was pulled over for having a broken mirror in Orange County, where she said the law enforcement officer saw the warrant for his arrest in the court system and took him into custody.

Arroyo said she has since provided the court with the man’s valid driver’s license, and the charge was lessened to a civil citation. She has petitioned Immigration and Customs Enforcement to issue the man a bond so he can be released, but wasn’t sure if that would be granted or how long the process would take.

U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement did tell her Alligator Alcatraz wasn’t yet able to support attorney visits, which she found concerning.

She spoke to her client by phone after he called his brother, who included her on the call.

“Those that are inside are literally voiceless, and it’s important that they have access to their attorneys who can be that voice,” Arroyo said. “Immigrants have constitutional rights and rights to due process solely by being here on American soil, and a lot of people forget about that.”

Florida’s Division of Emergency Management and ICE’s press office didn’t respond to a request for comment prior to publication.

First announced on June 19, the immigration detention facility was swiftly set up by the DeSantis administration at an airport used for training flights deep in the Everglades. It is expected to eventually have capacity for about 3,000 detainees.

The Miami Herald reported earlier this week on similar reports of dire conditions at the detention facility, citing conversations with the wives of men detained there. A spokesperson for the Division of Emergency Management denied the Herald’s reporting, stating “Bug and environmental factors are minimized in the facility,” and that “all plumbing systems are working and operational.”

The Orange County Jail confirmed this week that some number of people detained at the jail – which has an agreement with ICE to house federal inmates, including those on immigration detainers – were subsequently transferred to Alligator Alcatraz.

An Orlando woman who did not want to be identified because of fears of retaliation said one of her family members has been transferred to the Everglades detention center from a county jail.

She said he was detained during a routine immigration field office check-in after the Trump administration revoked his temporary legal status.

The woman said he was able to call her from the detention center and told her he doesn’t know when he’ll get a hearing before an immigration judge or how long he could be at the facility.

The man told her it was difficult to tell if it was day or night inside the facility, which is made up of large tents, and mosquitoes and sweltering heat made it difficult to be outdoors.

“There is no rhyme or reason for who they pick up or why they pick them up,” she said. “I am devastated. What makes it worse is the comments people make. They forget these are human beings and people’s loved ones.”

State Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, one of several Democratic lawmakers prevented from entering Alligator Alcatraz last week, said she had concerns about a tour scheduled by the state this upcoming weekend.

“We’re glad to see public pressure forcing the state of Florida to open its doors,” she said. “But let’s be clear: this isn’t a field trip — it’s oversight. The law grants us the right to enter these facilities unannounced, at any time. … Floridians deserve genuine transparency, not curated photo opportunities, and we will continue to push for that type of unfettered access.”

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