Demand Progress

Investigate and shut down brutal ICE prisons!

Sign the petition:

    By selecting this checkbox you are agreeing to receive text messages from Demand Progress Action Inc. and Demand Progress Education Fund and are agreeing to Demand Progress' SMS Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Message and data rates may apply.

    Investigate and shut down brutal ICE prisons!

    Petition to Congress:
    We urge you to do everything in your power to investigate and shut down vile, inhumane immigrant detention centers, including the one known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”

    U.S. lawmakers and human rights groups are speaking out about horrifying conditions in ICE prisons.

    Trump has called the most notorious detention center, “Alligator Alcatraz.”1 The hastily constructed, dangerous prison is one example of the urgent humanitarian disaster that Trump and ICE have created. After visiting the facility, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz called it an “internment camp.”2 “You feel like your life is over,” said one man that ICE detained in Florida for 63 days even though he was never accused of a crime.3

    Congress must take immediate action to protect people in immigrant detention, investigate these ICE prisons, and end Trump’s authoritarian policies.

    Sign the petition: Investigate and end the abuses at ICE prisons!

    The pace and violence of Trump’s mass deportations requires more prisons built quickly, which is why the horrific “Alligator Alcatraz” was constructed in just eight days.4 And now ICE is using its massive infusion of funding from Congress to build even more of these slapdash torture centers.5

    Democratic lawmakers observed intolerable, inhumane conditions at “Alligator Alcatraz” that included excessive heat, insufficient food, and unlivable sanitation conditions. 30+ people in a cage with 3 toilets, some inoperable, with drinking spigots connected to toilet tanks. Rep. Maxwell Frost said, “What I saw made my heart sink.”6

    Republicans are proud of these hellish detention camps. It’s a hallmark of Trump’s increasingly brutal mass deportations. Our leaders must fight back against the White House’s vicious detention centers NOW.

    Sign the petition: Investigate ICE prisons now and shutdown these internment camps on U.S. soil.

    Sources:

    1. The Washington Post, "Heat, storms, mosquitos the big threats at Alligator Alcatraz, experts say,” July 5, 2025.
    2. USA Today, “'Help me!' Democrats decry 'vile' conditions at 'Alligator Alcatraz' immigrant prison,” July 14, 2025.
    3. Human Rights Watch, “'You Feel Like Your Life Is Over' Abusive Practices at Three Florida Immigration Detention Centers Since January 2025,” July 21, 2025.
    4. PBS News, “A look at the controversy around ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ detention center,” July 13, 2025.
    5. The Wall Street Journal, “Newly Flush With Cash, ICE Races to Build Migrant Tent Camps,” July 19, 2025.
    6. USA Today, “'Help me!' Democrats decry 'vile' conditions at 'Alligator Alcatraz' immigrant prison,” July 14, 2025.
    Click here to sign