Former Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez and several local officials denounce the conditions of migrant detention.
14ymedio Havana, 8 July 2025 – In the new migrants’ detention centre Alligator Alcatraz “they treat us like dogs”, said the Cuban reggaeton singer Leamsy Izquierdo, La Figura. “There’s nothing in the place, it’s not suitable for humans”.
The singer, who was detained last week by agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Miami, described for his girlfriend Katia Hernández by telephone the conditions in the migrants’ prison, which was inaugurated by US president Donald Trump on July 1st.
“We only get one meal a day, and sometimes they have maggots in them”, said the musician. According to judicial records, Izquierdo was admitted into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center and bailed for 6,000 dollars for armed aggression. However, his freedom was blocked by a migrant detention order and he was detained by ICE.
La Figura said he doesn’t even know whether it’s day or night. “The lights are permanently on, 24 hours a day”. The Cuban also said that “the mosquitos are like elephants and there’s no water for washing. He asked that everything be made known to his lawyer so that he could post it onto Instagram.
Inside the complex, which has a total of 200 surveillance cameras, 8,500 metres of barbed wire, more than 400 guards and is surrounded by swamp, caymans and snakes to deter escape, the reggaeton singer says there are “more than 300 people who are suffering”. He added that there are a number of shortages. “There’s no medication for mental health issues”.
The first of Miami’s mayors to be born in Cuba, Xavier Suárez, protested against Alligator Alcatraz. “That installation is an environmental risk in a very fragile ecosystem”. He added that “the people are treated with the same rhetoric that they always use”.
On Tuesday, before the denouncements, Daniella Levine Cava – mayor of Miami-Dade County where the new detention centre is situated – demanded that the federal and state governments give her access to the site for monitoring purposes; last week legislators from Florida State were denied entry to the centre.
For their part, the environmental associations Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity pushed their legal demands that the centre should be closed because of its averse environmental impact.
“This country’s national parks are considered to be one of the United States’ best ideas but this massive detention centre in the heart of the Everglades is one of its worst ideas”, said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades and who leads the campaign Stop Alligator Alcatraz.
Translated by Ricardo Recluso
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