Take action to close the Everglades concentration camp.

• Send a short letter to your elected officials to demand that Congress immediately defund and close the concentration camp.

• Add your name to the ACLU petition to shut down the concentration camp.

• Donate to Florida Immigrant Coalition, a nonprofit that provides legal services, pro-immigrant advocacy, organizing, and civic engagement for migrants.

• Support the work of Sanctuary of the South, a workers collaborative providing legal support for those navigating immigration, deportation and detention.

• If you’re located nearby, join the emergency press conference held today, Tuesday, July 22 outside the concentration camp.

Florida just built a detention facility in the Everglades on abandoned airstrip land. Officials call it "Alligator Alcatraz" because alligators and pythons act as perimeter guards. The state's Attorney General, James Uthmeier, gave it its name: "You don't need to invest that much in the perimeter. If people get out, there's not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons" (NPR).

The facility was built in eight days, and the conditions are horrific. Detainees and members of Congress who have visited the site have shared that about 900 people are crammed into a 39-acre tent camp that floods regularly. People drink from toilet spigots, wade through raw sewage, live under constant lighting, and can't get medical care (AP News).

The gravity of these conditions is underscored by a Human Rights Watch report, which documented systemic abuse at three other detention facilities in Florida operated by ICE. People detained here report being: shackled with hands tied behind their backs, forced to kneel and eat from styrofoam plates on the floor "like dogs", left without water or air conditioning during electricity failures in sweltering heat, and given rotten food (Human Rights Watch).

Moreover, the Everglades concentration camp violates basic legal rights. Detainees have no access to lawyers - no in-person visits, no confidential calls, nor private communication. There's no direct phone number or working email for legal counsel, or staff authorized to process paperwork for legal representation. Legal advocates have filed federal lawsuits, but people are essentially disappeared into a legal black hole.

These aren't accidents. They're designed features of a system meant to break people before they can access legal help.

The facility is also located in 96% wetlands in Big Cypress National Preserve, home to endangered Florida panthers (19th News). Environmental groups have challenged its construction from its start, knowing that increased human activity will threaten the endangered wildlife, cause noise pollution, and waste (Tampa Bay Times). Florida used emergency powers to take the land from Miami-Dade County for $20 million, even though the property is worth nearly $190 million (NPR). They used FEMA disaster relief funds originally meant to help Floridians recover from hurricanes (NBC News).

This isn't just Florida. ICE detention nationwide has hit record highs of over 56,000 people (Yahoo News). Forty-five out of 181 facilities are over capacity (Yahoo News). At Krome Detention Center, one of the three featured in the HRW report, the population tripled in three months, reaching 300% capacity (Human Rights Watch). Take a moment to rally against this injustice.