Florida Democrats in Congress want to close down "Alligator Alcatraz" by stripping more than $400 million earmarked by the Department of Homeland Security to build the immigration detention center in the Everglades.
The eight Democrats said Thursday they introduced the "No Cages in the Everglades Act" to defund DHS's "lawless, inhumane immigration detention site within South Florida's ecologically sensitive tribal lands."
Signing on as sponsors: U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, along with Democratic Florida Reps. Kathy Castor, of Tampa, Frederica Wilson, of Miami Gardens, Lois Frankel, of Boca Raton, Darren Soto, of Orlando, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, of Miramar, Maxwell Frost, of Orlando, and Jared Moskowitz of Parkland.
ALSO READ: Full text of the bill
The bill faces long odds of passage in the House, where Republicans hold a 220-212 majority. Three vacancies were held by Democrats.
READ MORE: Congressional, state lawmakers tour Alligator Alcatraz. See men in cages. Hear pleas of 'Libertad'
"[President Donald] Trump and [Gov.] Ron DeSantis have exploited legal ambiguity around this Everglades internment camp to avoid any scrutiny of abuses there," said Wasserman Schultz. "Our bill would shut down this atrocity, strengthen oversight of detention facilities nationwide, and mandate public reporting on costs, conditions, and the treatment of detainees at this detention site, as well as report on any harms to the environment and nearby tribal lands," she said in a statement. "The public deserves the full truth about what's happening in and around this facility and they deserve accountability for any laws broken."
"The reports coming out of Trump's so-called 'Alligator Alcatraz' are deeply disturbing," said Frankel. "Detained immigrants — many of whom have no criminal record — are being denied water, medicine, legal counsel and other basic human rights."
"This bill puts a stop to the madness," Frankel said.
"No one should be subjected to unsafe, degrading treatment, and we cannot meet these injustices with silence or symbolic gestures," said Cherfilus-McCormick.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has said the construction of the immigration detention center, which opened this month, is funded in large part by the Shelter and Services Program within the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Managing the facility "via a team of vendors" will cost $245 a bed per day or approximately $450 million a year, a U.S. official said. The expenses will be incurred by Florida and reimbursed by FEMA, which has a $625 million shelter and service program fund.
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