Life within the famous “Alcatraz” crocodile in its last days

When her son was transferred to the migration nursery, Yannessi Fernandez was afraid of the worst. Then I received a call from it inside the “Alcatraz”.

“We had no idea about where he was until he called us,” Yancy told the BBC. He said: “My mother, they took me to the crocodile facility.” This is how she put it. “

The temporary migration detention center that was built in Florida Evergelides quickly has become a stable symbol of the immigration policy of President Donald Trump.

Now, just two months after its opening, the Ministry of Internal Security (DHS) said it would close it, according to the orders of the judge. This process is already ongoing – Tsar Tom Homan told the BBC border during a press conference that only about 50 % of detainees are still staying.

The British Broadcasting Corporation spoke to the families of prisoners who were transferred last month, who say their loved ones disappeared in the system when they were in the most weak.

This includes Michael Burigo Fernandez, son of Yanizi, who says he was left bleeding while he was suffering from severe pain after a medical incident, before he was transferred to another facility. It is part of a continuous lawsuit claiming that the inmates who are respected from reaching their lawyer.

It was built over eight days at the end of June in Evergels, which are wet, protected lands famous for its crises, soon became the South Florida detention facility, one of the most famous immigration detention centers in the United States.

The attachment called “Alcatraz” was built, as it was never at its capacity, even when the number of individuals detained in the detention of immigration across the United States reached 59,000 records in mid -August.

While it was open, it was a shocking rod to discuss America about Trump’s campaign of illegal immigration. Some came to visit the center to protest, while others stopped taking proud selfies with the “Alcatraz” sign abroad.

When the facility was opened for the first time, the Republican Party in Florida commissioned Alcatraz Merchandise: shirts, hats and beer coolers.

“People are expelled from the idea that we are finally closing the border and sending people here illegally committing crimes outside the country,” said Evan Power, President of Florida, the Republican Party.

“We have laws to follow,” Jack Lombardi, a Republican voter in Florida, told the BBC. “You are a guest in our country. (…) The facts that came to this country illegally. I came here unwanted.”

There were conflicting reports on the conditions inside. After visiting the legislators in July, the Republicans said it was a good, safe and clean facility. However, Democrats described conditions as evil, crowded and unhealthy.

now, The judge order is a preliminary judicial order to close it within 60 daysWhile they hear an issue claiming that the government did not follow the protocol when it built the facility. Although the government appeals this decision, the Ministry of National Security said it would be able to order the judge.

“I do not agree with the judge who made this decision,” Homan told the media on Thursday. “I went there. I walked to the detention areas. I saw a clean facility and maintained it well.”

His mother said Michael Fernandez moved to the United States from Cuba in 2019, and gave temporary political asylum.

After he fell into the hotbred building scheme in 2021, the judge ordered his removal. In June, he admitted that he was guilty of Grand Theft to avoid prison time, although he says he has no idea that the company he was working with is customer agents. His lawyer also says that Michael was not aware of the removal matter against him.

In January, he was withdrawn by the police while he was leading his niece to school. By June, he was the seizure of American customs and immigration officers, and moved to the Florida detention center.

Michael in Alcatraz was less than a week when Yaneisy received a call from some men held next to him.

“They told me that Michael woke up covered with blood,” she said. Michael hemorrhoids have developed the fourth stage – of the most severe type – she said. He was transferred to the hospital and underwent colon surgery.

Returning to the facility, Michael spoke to his mother on short monitoring phone calls. “He couldn’t even stay on the phone for more than a few seconds because he was suffering from severe pain,” she said. He told her that he suffers from an infection. “He felt that he would have a heart attack,” said Yannessi. “And they took it to the hospital.”

Michael told her that he was not given pain medications, and it was one night that was assigned by hand throughout the night in a way that could not sleep on a confrontation as required after surgery.

Yannessi says Michael told her that they did not allow him to shower or give him a change in underwear when his summaries were covered with his blood and stool.

“This is not healthy. They left him there like a dog, like someone who has been thrown.”

Michael’s case is now part of a lawsuit against the Trump administration, which claims that the detainees have no appropriate access to the legal advisor through personal secret meetings with their lawyer. The BBC Ministry of National Security told the PBC that there is a material space for lawyers to meet their customers.

The lawsuit continues. It was transferred to a different facility on August 1.

“These allegations about Michael Borrigo Fernandez are wrong.”. They said that the ice had provided it with “appropriate medical care and medicines.”

The Florida Emergency Management Department said that the detainees can reach “medical care around the clock throughout the week, which includes a pharmacy, in addition to clean cleaning facilities and can set an appointment for each of the personal and virtual appointments with lawyers.”

Michaelzaless, Michael’s lawyer, says that although immigration detention centers are supposed to be not intense – a place to supervise migrants facing deportation – the conditions inside these facilities are “insulting and dead.”

“The Evergelides camp for the players is more,” he said.

Yaneisy is not the only person who seriously had a member of his family while inside the “Alcatraz”.

When Glades Marco Alvarez Bravo, 38, was arrested and transferred to the detention facility, she was the worst nightmare.

Then he disappeared for more than a week.

Everything began more than a month ago when Marco left his house in Talhaasi, Florida, to visit a client to provide an estimate of the construction function. Outside their apartment, the ice agents pulled it.

“I ask the officers, why do you take it?” Glades remembers. “He has a suspended legal status. (…) He is not a criminal.”

Marco arrived in the United States from Chile seven years ago. He entered the country in a tourist visa, which he exceeded, then applied for political asylum. Glades, an American citizen who met with friends almost at the same time, said this claim continues and allowed him to stay in the country while waiting for a decision. They got married 11 days before arrest.

In response to the British Broadcasting Commission, the Ministry of National Security claimed that Marco was a “known member of the South American theft group.” Glades said her husband has no criminal record.

Once he was transferred, Glades was concerned about the safety of her husband.

Glades said that Marco has a genetic heart called the Wolf Parkinson White syndrome, which causes the heart to strike an abnormal speed. He underwent medical procedures to treat his disease in April this year, and was taking daily heart medications. The BBC told Glades that in the wake of the procedure, he also had pneumonia, which he was still suffering when he was arrested.

Initially, Gladys had no idea about where it was taken because it did not appear in the Ice Locator database, an official online database that shows the place of detention of people.

Gunther Sanabria, a migration lawyer who represented the clients inside the “Alcatraz”, said that it has become common for people held by ICE for not appearing in the official specified system.

He said: “We make people cry here every week, because they do not know where there are members of their families, and they went to work that morning and were transferred.”

But Marco’s invitations from inside the Florida detention center reassured Glades.

On August 14, he called to tell her that he was torn in his college, which affected the spine.

The next day, another man who was being held alongside Marco called her to say that her husband was on a wheelchair and was transferred to Florida Kendall Hospital.

This was the last thing I heard for more than a week. I examined daily on the location of the ice site, but it did not find its name.

It took eight days before you know what happened.

“I can’t believe this is really happening,” she said. “Where is my husband?”

The BBC was told that Marco was receiving medical care, but he did not respond to a specific question about the place where he was currently being held. In a BBC statement, they said: “It is alert and he can at any time contact his family.”

Finally, she received a call from Marco on August 22. He returned to the “Crocodile Crocodile”. But within days they were preparing to transfer it again. Marco or Glades did not know where.

“I am very tense, confused about everything that is going on and my nerves are completely wrecking,” she said.

As of this week, Marco appears to have been transferred to the KROME facility for detention, 35 miles away.

While the judge’s decision to close the attachment represents a blow to the Trump administration, other temporary facilities are built in many countries led by Republicans, including a second facility in Florida, which was called “deposit deposit” and another in Indiana that internal security officials named Speedway Solimer.

Looking at the future, Homan said that although the “Alcatraz” was “a great transitional”, he did not see him as a long -term solution.

“I think the ice needs more bricks and mortars (accompanying),” he told reporters. “We have money now to build infrastructure … permanent facilities.”

With additional reports by Bernd Deposman Junior