Lawyers Say Immigrants Battling Medical Emergencies and Disease at Everglades Detention Camp

Editor’s Note: There have been many anecdotal reports on social media of an unusually high number of ambulances coming and going from the Everglades Detention Camp. American Prospect reports that there are a rising number of tuberculosis cases in immigration detention facilities across the country. Although the ‘respiratory disease’ discussed in this article is not named, tuberculosis is certainly a possibility, as is COVID. Despite the insistence of state and federal officials that detainees are receiving adequate care in sanitary conditions, we know from prior reporting this is simply not the case. Immigrants, most of whom have committed no crime, are being held without access to the legal system or due process, in a petri dish of disease. Meantime, Florida plans to open a second detention camp in Jacksonville.

A respiratory disease allegedly sweeping through Alligator Alcatraz has prompted multiple affidavits in support of a class-action lawsuit against the remote Florida immigrant detention center.

Lawyers and migrants being held inside the Everglades facility have reported a trend of negligence and worsening conditions, including a mystery illness, possibly Covid-19, running rampant through the camp.

Eric Lee, an attorney for former detainee Luis Manuel Rivas Velásquez, filed a complaint on Wednesday against Alligator Alcatraz, accusing it of being a “petri dish for disease.”

Last Thursday, Velásquez, a 38-year-old Venezuelan influencer, told Lee that he fell seriously ill with breathing problems. After allegedly being denied medical care for 48 hours, at one point, the detainee collapsed and became unresponsive.

In the filings, Lee said that Velásquez was taken to Miami’s Kendall regional medical center and diagnosed with a respiratory infection before being briefly returned to the Florida camp and then transferred to another facility in El Paso, Texas.

The Department of Homeland released a statement on Thursday and said that Velásquez “fainted and was taken to the hospital out of precaution.”

Along with reporting respiratory symptoms, the plaintiff said that conditions at the facility had deteriorated significantly, with more detainees falling ill.

Lee told the Guardian on Tuesday that “multiple detainees” have informed him that the “vast majority” of those held in the camp have become sick.

“There are people who are losing breath,” he said. “There are people who are walking around coughing on one another.”

Protesters at the jail gates say they have recorded several instances of ambulances arriving and leaving.

However, the DHS said in its statement that there is “no widespread disease circulating at Alligator Alcatraz” and “no cases of COVID and no cases of Tuberculosis.”

In an earlier statement to the Miami New Times, Stephanie Hartman, a department spokesperson, did not answer questions about a possible outbreak.

“Detainees have access to a 24/7, fully staffed medical facility with a pharmacy on site,” she said.

After being transferred to the El Paso facility, Velásquez reportedly called Lee and said that his condition was worsening.

“I don’t want to die in here,” he told Lee on the phone call before abruptly being cut off, according to the filing.

In a separate filing, detainees and attorneys alleged that Alligator Alcatraz had poor sanitation, limited access to legal counsel, and overcrowded tented housing.

Plaintiffs portrayed the site as lacking “adequate medical infrastructure” with hundreds of migrants “crammed into close quarters in extreme heat and humidity, with poor ventilation and limited access to hygiene.”

According to the filing, detainees have been left in their bunks without testing or treatment. It also accuses immigration officials of erecting “an unconstitutional barrier between detainees and their counsel.”

Federal judges have recently intervened in other detention settings to order improved conditions after lawyers documented unsafe and unsanitary environments.

Separately, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Mary Williams last Thursday temporarily halted any further construction of Alligator Alcatraz after two days of testimony about the environmental impact of the site.

In response, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that “operations at Alligator Alcatraz are ongoing and deportations are continuing.”