Guards at Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration jail deployed teargas and engaged in a mass beating of detainees to quell a mini-uprising, it was reported on Friday.
The allegations, made by at least three detainees in phone calls to Miami’s Spanish language news channel Noticias 23, come as authorities race to empty the camp in compliance with a judge’s order to close the remote tented camp in the Everglades wetlands.
The incident took place after several migrants held there began shouting for “freedom” after one received news a relative had died, according to the outlet. A team of guards then rushed in and began beating individuals indiscriminately with batons, and fired teargas at them, the detainees said.
“They’ve beaten everyone here, a lot of people have bled. Brother, teargas. We are immigrants, we are not criminals, we are not murderers,” one of the men reportedly told Noticias 23 in a call.
The detainees claimed a fire alarm was sounding continuously, and a helicopter was heard circling overhead.
Reports of “inhumane” conditions and brutality at the camp, where migrants are held in metal cages as they await deportation, have become commonplace. Donald Trump and Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, celebrated its harsh environment as they toured the facility together when it opened last month.
Kathleen Williams, a federal judge in Miami, last week ordered Alligator Alcatraz to close within 60 days for breaching environmental laws, and on Wednesday refused a motion by attorneys for the state of Florida and the Trump administration to stay her order.
It was not clear when the latest incident is alleged to have taken place, and the Guardian was unable to independently confirm details.
The Florida division of emergency management (FDEM), which operates the jail on behalf of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), denied it had occurred.
“These reports are manufactured. There is no uprising happening at Alligator Alcatraz. Detainees are given clean, safe living conditions and guards are properly trained on all state and federal protocols,” Stephanie Hartman, the department’s director of communications, said in an email.
Protesters who have maintained an almost constant presence at the jail’s gates since its 2 July opening said they were unaware of any incident amounting to an uprising, but have chronicled other reports of abuse taking place there.
“People held inside the facility were on hunger strike for more than 14 days, despite the DeSantis administration denying it. What they apparently did was ship people who were hunger striking out to other facilities, Krome [in Miami], to Texas etc, to break it up,” said Noelle Damico, director of social justice at the Workers Circle.
“[An uprising] would not surprise me given the abuses that people have experienced.”
DeSantis told reporters on Wednesday that authorities have “increased the pace of the removals from there”, after Kevin Guthrie, executive director of FDEM, revealed in a memo, reported by the Associated Press, that “we are probably going to be down to 0 individuals within a few days”.
The governor announced plans earlier this month for a new immigration jail in north Florida, to be called “the deportation depot”, while other states have joined the push to build detention camps with names mocking immigrants, including the “Speedway Slammer” in Indiana, and the “Cornhusker Clink” in Nebraska.
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