Alligator Alcatraz, the new immigration detention center that opened in the Florida Everglades, had the left-wing media twisting the purpose of the facility. On Monday, CNN News Central featured Correspondent Rafael Romo, who made the false claim that “hundreds of immigrants with no criminal charges in the United States are being held at Alligator Alcatraz.” What Romo was trying to mischaracterize to the CNN audience was the fact they had criminal charges filed in other countries. 

On July 3rd, Alligator Alcatraz officially opened with the first group of detainees. Of course, the immigration detention center has received backlash from the liberal media, but Romo got the facts wrong when he claimed:  

Hundreds of immigrants with no criminal charges in the United States are being held at Alligator Alcatraz, according to an investigation by the Miami Herald and the Tampa Bay Times, which obtained records about the migrants being held there. According to the report, Brianna, there are more than 250 people who are listed as having only immigration violations but no criminal convictions who are being held together with those accused and convicted of crimes.   

The key words Romo used were “no criminal charges in the United States.” Romo failed to report that many of the illegal immigrants have criminal charges in their origin countries, not just in the United States.   

An edited version of the Miami Herald article, referenced by Romo, had a statement made by the Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin that opposed their false claims:  

Many of the individuals that are counted as ‘non-criminals’ are actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gangsters are more; they just don’t have a rap sheet in the U.S. Further, every single one of these individuals committed a crime when they came into this country illegally. It is not an accurate description to say they are ‘non-criminals.’  

It’s worth noting that Romo tried to use President Trump’s words against him when he visited the facility, but there was an obvious truth to his statement: He said that it would very soon house some of the most menacing migrants. He said, some of the most vicious people on the planet.  

Yes, Rafael, “some of the most vicious people on the planet” have origin countries that are on Earth, and they just happen to be in the United States illegally.  

Romo also added a quote from Democratic Representative Darren Soto about how the architecture of the detention center could have “serious concerns” of flooding during hurricane season. 

What separates this facility from prisons located along both sides of the coast in Florida?  

CNN’s efforts to sympathize with illegal immigrations while opposing the Trump administration’s policies prove that they didn’t have the safety of the American people in mind. The people who were sent to Alligator Alcatraz were criminals, whether they crossed the border illegally or committed crimes in their home countries. 

Click here for the transcripts:

CNN News Central
7/14/25
1:43:46 p.m. Eastern

BRIANNA KEILAR: Significant new details about the controversial new immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades. According to reporting from the Miami Herald and the Tampa Bay Times, more than 700 migrants are either currently detained at or scheduled to be sent to the facility, nicknamed by Trump: Alligator Alcatraz. And many of them do not have criminal records. They’re listed as having only immigration violations. CNN's Rafael Romo is with us now. Rafael, what are you learning about this?

RAFAEL ROMO: Well, Brianna, you may remember at the beginning of the month when President Donald Trump toured the migrant detention facility in the Florida Everglades. He said that it would very soon house some of the most menacing migrants. He said, some of the most vicious people on the planet. But a new report published Sunday suggests that may not be the case.

Hundreds of immigrants with no criminal charges in the United States are being held at Alligator Alcatraz, according to an investigation by the Miami Herald and the Tampa Bay Times, which obtained records about the migrants being held there.

According to the report, Brianna, there are more than 250 people who are listed as having only immigration violations but no criminal convictions who are being held together with those accused and convicted of crimes. The report says, only a third of the detainees have criminal convictions, with charges that range from attempted murder to illegal reentry into the United States, as well as traffic violations. The information comes from a list of more than 700 migrants who are either already being held at the tent facility or are scheduled to be transferred there.

Several elected officials and members of Congress had access to the migrant detention center on Saturday for the first time since it opened earlier this month. This is what two of them had to say about the facility.

[Cuts to video]

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D-FL): They should not put humans in cages in the middle of swampland in the Everglades. It's outrageous. It's inhumane. It's unlawful.

REP. MAXWELL FROST (D-FL): What is the hurricane plan? What is the plan with flooding? We want to see the medical unit. We want to see what the segregation unit looks like. We want to see where the law library is. We want to see all this and make sure that it's up to the standards of what a federal facility is.

[Cuts back to live]

ROMO: And Brianna, Wasserman Schultz also said that migrants are packed into what she described as cages with 32 people inside each holding unit and only three toilets available. In an interview with NBC on Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem dismissed the claims, saying ICE detention centers are generally better than most county jails or federal prisons across the United States.

[Cuts to video]

SEC. KRISTI NOEM: Well, our detention centers at the federal level are held to a higher standard than most local or state centers, and even federal prisons. The standards are extremely high.

[Cuts back to live]

ROMO: One final point, Brianna. This is rather important. After touring the detention center Saturday, Representative Darren Soto, a Democrat, said lawmakers also witnessed evidence of flooding, highlighting serious concerns of what could happen to detainees if there's severe weather. During what forecasters say may be a very busy hurricane season. Brianna. 

KEILAR: Rafael Romo, thank you so much for that.