State Sen. Shevrin Jones, a Democrat from Miami-Dade County, was also there and recalls that someone with a thermometer showed that the temperature at the entrance of one of the tents was 81 degrees. He noticed that one of the detainees was bare-chested, with his shirt wrapped around his head.

The Trump administration says each bed at the detention camp is expected to cost $245 a day - roughly the price of one night this week at the Intercontinental Miami hotel.

The local officials who are facing criticism over a controversial detention center for undocumented migrants on Miami-Dade County land met on Monday to celebrate a step forward on a $141 million PortMiami project near Miami International Airport.

Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters the state is planning to hold another 2,000 detainees at the Camp Blanding migrant detention facility.

The first detainees arrived at Alligator Alcatraz late Wednesday night, even as the immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades has already faced some operational issues with security and water intrusion.

Workers install a sign reading "Alligator Alcatraz" at the entrance to a new migrant detention facility at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility on Thursday, July 3, 2025, in Ochopee, Florida.

Environmental groups are pushing back against Trump administration arguments seeking to distance the federal government from responsibility for the Alligator Alcatraz detention center.

The calls from Alligator Alcatraz’s first detainees brought distressing news ... the state agency overseeing the facility’s operations. “All plumbing systems are working and operational.” Detainees are telling their families a different story ...

The first detainees arrived at Alligator Alcatraz late Wednesday night, even as the immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades has already faced some operational issues with security ...

But data and news reports about the first month’s arrivals show the majority of Alligator Alcatraz’s detainees do not have U.S. criminal convictions.  President Donald Trump, federal officials and Florida Republicans touted the remote Everglades immigration detention centers — dubbed Alligator Alcatraz — as a place to detain people deemed the "worst of the worst.