{"id":401037,"date":"2026-09-16T01:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T01:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/401037\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T01:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T01:36:08","slug":"desantis-donalds-respond-to-alligator-alcatraz-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/401037\/","title":{"rendered":"DeSantis, Donalds respond to ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ report"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 A Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General report found ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ held detainees in \u201ccramped conditions\u201d<\/a> that were harmful to their physical and mental health.<\/p>\n

The report also called out a lack of standards, shared photos of 18 square-foot enclosures called \u201ccalming areas,\u201d and recommended that more space, pest control and clean water be available to detainees.<\/p>\n

The facility closed in June.<\/p>\n

Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday that the state had every intention of not only meeting, but exceeding standards at the facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal was not only to comply with those standards, but to exceed those standards, that\u2019s why we devoted so many resources to it. But here\u2019s the thing, we had tens of millions of people come in illegally over the last generation, probably 10 million under Biden alone, and you\u2019re either going to do something about it or you\u2019re not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, the Republican candidate for governor, was asked if he\u2019s elected, whether he will investigate the findings of the report.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that that facility has been closed, calling for an investigation into something that\u2019s no longer in operation, honestly sounds like busy work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Spectrum News 13 reached out to Democratic candidate David Jolly for comment, but had not heard back.<\/p>\n

State Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith took to Facebook<\/a> with his reaction. The Democrat called the findings \u201cdisgusting,\u201d but not surprising.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always said the Everglades detention camp was cruel and inhumane since the beginning,\u201d the post stated. \u201c\u2018Alligator Alcatraz\u2019 may have shut down, but there needs to be accountability for the atrocities that occurred there and for the BILLIONS in state taxpayers dollars spent in our name.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 A Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General report found ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ held…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[115,139,141,140,143013,135,835],"class_list":["post-401037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-rhian-lowndes","tag-tampa","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}