Lawmakers who tried to visit 'Alligator Alcatraz' amid humanitarian concerns were denied entry

[orangecrush]

Source: CNN

Florida lawmakers worried about “humanitarian concerns” were denied entry into the new detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” Thursday, just hours after the arrival of its first group of detainees.

“They stopped us pretty immediately,” said Florida state Rep. Anna Eskamani, one of the five Democratic state lawmakers who attempted to visit the facility and inspect its grounds following reports of flooding and other issues.

The lawmakers were stopped by law enforcement officers from multiple Florida agencies and later, a general counsel from the Florida Division of Emergency Management cited a “safety concern” for the denial without offering specific details, Eskamani said.

“If it’s unsafe for us, how is it safe for the detainees?” Eskamani said she asked the attorney.

The group’s request to see the outer perimeter of the tent facility was also denied, Eskamani said.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/03/us/alligator-alcatraz-florida-lawmakers-visit

[CentralMass]

1. It's the 4th f'cking Reich.

[intrepidity]

2. We must stop tolerating this bullshit

Dems need to start screaming bloody murder.

[NJCher]

4. We're not tolerating it

Read the two legal briefs posted tonight by Bum Rush. They are violating the Constitution and there will no doubt be a ruling and soon, too.

The suffering these people have gone through is almost unimaginable.

The legal work and the proof is all there.

Noem needs to be removed. Miller, too.

[travelingthrulife]

8. And the ruling will be appealed, a Trump judge will clear it and Trump will carry on.

[NJCher]

9. please

stop with the negative crap already.

[DENVERPOPS]

14. The Dems

haven't been screaming for the past 45+ years, like some of us on DU have been doing............

Can't imagine it's gonna start now, in the face of what many of us have been warning about for decades....

[OrlandoDem2]

3. Remember that name Anna Eskamani. She will be next Orlando mayor and is a riding star in the party!

[Timeflyer]

7. Yes, she's awesome and FL's lucky to have her!

[CanonRay]

5. If they require 5 days notice

then plan a visit five days out. Then another person 6 days out and so on so someone is there every day.

[berniesandersmittens]

13. +1

Every.day.

At every camp.

[DENVERPOPS]

15. Do any of you happen to recall

what happened years ago, when all the congressional politicians went to Texas? and tried to get inside the compound to visit all the hundreds, if not thousands of Mexican children separated from their parents, and cooped up in pens elbow to elbow, with a space blanket for bedding?
The Dems were forcefully turned away at the compound by armed individuals dressed it full battle garb. There is conveniently no record of what happened to any of the children the Repubs intentionally kept no digital or paper records on anything.............

Next time the dems go down to that installation in Florida, we can be sure they will be arrested and confined to one of the tents down there indefinitely for disobeying a lawful "presidential" order.....

I can see these Tent Concentration Camps springing up all over America, especially in the Blue States...........

This scenario opens up a whole new profit center for Trump's grifting empire......He and his buddy who produces the tents and installs them, can make a fortune off every one of these installations with a "Presidential Order" for any amount of money, and no bid contracts....

[berniesandersmittens]

16. The point is to keep trying

The excuse was they needed a five day notice to gain access. It's a start to schedule the visits for now. I don't know how else to go about it.

[DENVERPOPS]

18. The pictures being released on DU

show that they had better bring flippers, swimsuits, and PFD's to tour the insides of the tents. And evidently there will be hundreds of U.S. Marines in full battle gear with assault rifles to be standing guard to stop them, if they even get past the road entrance that DeSantis has ordered 100 of the State Patrol to guard.......

So much for firing the Army Corps of Engineers and hiring one of Trump's contractor friends to build the compound on the sly.......you can bet it was done on a Trump Presidential Order, and with a NO BID contract............................................and the potential for astronomical grifting for Trump, DeSantis and the contractor they selected, would be way beyond belief.....

Even more disgusting are all the Repub Politcians laughing about it.......saying "How do you feed 75 million alligators" and even more contemptuous shit............

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. They do not want people to see flooding

[orangecrush]

10. They don't want them to see anything.

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

19. Just like the Nazis didn't want Germans to see their concentration and death camps.

The parallels between this regime and the Third Reich are getting more and more terrifying.

[Mr. Joe Steel]

11. It's hard to think of MAGA America...

It's hard to think of MAGA America in terms other than those relating to NAZI Germany. We see so many similarities; camps, street abductions, cowed legislators and public officials, obedient judges. Where will it end? Will the camps become death camps? Maybe not intentionally but through depraved indifference to the health of the prisoners.

[flashman13]

12. Alligator Aushwitz is the perfect place to take a stand. Protesters need to lay a 24/7 siege at the front gate.

The news media loves to have something to focus the cameras on. Give it to them. The media is good with keeping count. They can start with Day 1 of the siege of AA. And then keep it rolling to Day 10, and Day 100, and if necessary Day 500. It is the perfect place to stage an ongoing event. Keep it going until the MAGAts are forced to close down the camp. Like the vampires they are, they hate the light of day. The powers that be will go nuts. Make them rage. Keep the cameras running.

Prominent Democrats as in Congressmen, and Senators, and governors and celebrities, and labor leaders, and real christians all need to show up on a daily basis to deliver press conferences. Trump's magic is to make things disappear in his haze of bull shit. Big demonstrations are good, but an unending protest is better. This is going to be decided in the streets, not in DC. We the People are going to have to do it. And while we are at it we can show the world that we are not all chickenshits.

Of course we could just send some strongly worded letters instead.

[DENVERPOPS]

17. You All Asking For

Rebellion or Revolt are doing exactly what Trump wants you to do !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He is just waiting........He almost got it in L.A............At the first sign of ANY resistance ANYWHERE, he already has everything in place to enact the "Insurrection Act", ignore the Posse Comatatus Act, Use the entire U.S. Military to police the citizens of the U.S. by way of declaring Martial Law.

It has been allowed to progress so far these past 45+ years, I am not sure what can be done at this point...........The whole thing is within a move or two of being a Republican "Checkmate" and if we haven't reached the point of no return,........ we are on it's threshold......

[flashman13]

22. So your plan is we sit on our collective asses and wait for them to come to OUR door.

I don't know what to say in the face of such abject surrender.

“First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.”

Martin Niemoeller

[DENVERPOPS]

23. I am just stating the obvious reality..... flash

The time to have started speaking out was in 1980, when many of us began screaming out from the roof tops about what was going on.....

FORTY FIVE PLUS YEARS AGO...........We were immediately challenged by the so called mass of "REAGAN DEMOCRATS"........and have been called radical left wing-nut fringe ever since.

"They"were walking down the jungle path, swatting at mosquitoes, and were oblivious to the herd of charging elephants.....Pun Intended

And here we are, searching for some/any means to counter a near checkmate situation that has been incredibly orchestrated, organized and evolving by them for decades.....................playing the long game, just chipping away........

The perfect title for a book about the past 45+ years: WHILE THE NATION SLEPT.................

I am still, like so many of us have been FOR DECADES, looking for someway to counter what is happening to our beloved America, our constitution, our economy.................If for no other reason than the sake of our children and grandchildren..............

[flashman13]

24. The only thing I see is capitulation. What we should have done or could have done is ancient history.

Waiting at home to help your children and grand children board the trains is not an acceptable plan. That is not what all of those that came before us who fought, died and sacrifice for. My old man got on a B-17 34 times and flew to Germany so that I could live in the land of the free and the home of the brave, not the land of the distracted and home of the cowed. I will not turn my back on the strength and honor of his generation. That may call for personal sacrifice on my part. So be it. I am not asking anything of you. You can stand up or sit down. It's your call. You are the one that will have to look in the mirror. I live in the sticks way out in Redlandia. But if they do build a concentration camp near me, I will be at the gates to say NO!

[58Sunliner]

26. Non-violent protests. We have to DO something.

[dlk]

20. Hitler didn't allow concerned lawmakers or reporters to visit his concentration camps

The parallels are sickening.

[Dulcinea]

21. Don't call it Alligator Alcatraz.

Too cutesy. Call it what it is: the Trump/DeSantis Concentration Camp. Make these asswipes own it!

[Hekate]

25. Concentration Camp. Death Camp.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

27. The flooding gets higher and higher.

Link to tweet

[orangecrush]

28. Thanks for sharing this

What a mess.