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Democratic Reps Outraged Over Toilets at Alligator Alcatraz

Abigail Johnson
Abigail Johnson  |  July 17, 2025 1:45 PM

After visiting Alligator Alcatraz in the Florida Everglades last Saturday, Democrats from Congress and the Florida Legislature are sharing drastically different impressions of the facility than those espoused by their Republican counterparts who visited there a week prior. Since then, Democratic lawmakers have been oddly focused on denouncing one particular part of Alligator Alcatraz: the toilets. 

"I was in the facility for about two hours, and what I saw were horrible conditions and cages," said Florida Representative Maxwell Frost. "There are three toilets in each cage for the group of 32 people, and their drinking water comes from the toilet. There's a little spigot on top of the toilet, and that's where they drink their water as well." 

Another Democrat who visited on Saturday, Representative Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, also spoke out against the exposed toilet design. 

"They get their drinking water, and they brush their teeth where they poop, in the same unit," said Wasserman-Schultz. "They bragged that they went above standards supposedly and gave them a three-foot privacy wall that stretches the length inside the 32-detainee cage." 

Wasserman-Schutlz's indignation over the integrated toilet design has sparked some online backlash. People have pointed out the irony of her statements; most Americans also brush their teeth in the bathroom, a room that typically also houses a toilet, and almost all U.S. jails and prisons have the same integrated, open toilets for security and efficiency. 

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State Senator Blaise Ingoglia, a Republican from Florida, reportedly toured the facilities along with the now outspoken Democratic lawmakers. Ingoglia said that he had seen a well-run, safe facility where the living quarters were clean and the air conditioning worked well. 

“The rhetoric coming out of the Democrats does not match the reality,” said Ingoglia. 

The lawmakers were not allowed into the occupied holding cells or to interact with the detainees, but rather observed the sanitation conditions from the entryway of each tent, according to USA Today. 

A second Republican state senator, Jay Collins, toured Alligator Alcatraz's facilities in a group separate from Ingoglia. Collins said he saw backup generators, a tracking system for dietary restrictions, and military-style bunks with good mattresses. He also addressed some of his fellow lawmakers' outrage over the toilet arrangements. 

“Would I want that toilet-and-sink combination at my bathroom at the house?" said Collins, according the Associated Press. "Probably not, but this is a transitional holding facility." 

The 39-acre immigrant detention compound was constructed in eight days. Along with Governor Ron DeSantis and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, President Trump toured the Florida facility on July 1, two days before the site began actively accepting detainees.

Townhall host Larry O'Connor lambasted Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz's toilet talk in a recent segment of "The Larry Show": "It's called a bathroom, ma'am!"