Americans’ trust in corporate media has plummeted to its lowest level in more than five decades, according to Gallup polling. That trust gap should come as no surprise when reading the propaganda press’s hyperbolic coverage of the Trump administration’s immigration law enforcement policies. 

Department of Homeland Security officials say reporting on Alligator Alcatraz, the new Florida Everglades-based holding facility for illegal aliens facing deportation, has been drenched in “lies” and “baseless allegations.” 

“Nearly every single day, my office responds to media questions on FALSE allegations about Alligator Alcatraz. The media is clearly desperate for these allegations of inhumane conditions at this facility to be true,” DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to The Federalist. 

In a release exclusively provided to The Federalist, DHS says it hopes to set the record straight and debunk “all the hoaxes” surrounding the message-sending Alligator Alcatraz. 

McLaughlin asserts there have been some doozies pushed on social media and through many of the usual Trump-hating corporate media news outlets known for massaging the truth in the furtherance of the narrative they’re feeding. 

Correcting the record is particularly important amid escalating assaults against Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and other DHS officials, Homeland Security said. 

“No feces are overflowing from toilets. Just like no one has died. Incinerators are not being used for nefarious purposes. These types of smears are directly contributing to our officers facing a 1000% increase in assaults against them,” the assistant secretary said. “Here are the facts: Alligator Alcatraz does meet federal detention standards. All detainee facilities are clean. Any allegations of inhumane conditions are FALSE.”

Here are just five examples of hoax reporting on the holding center. 

Fainting Is Not Dying 

Last week, The Latin Times ran a headline that screamed, “Fate Of ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Detainee Prompts ‘Proof of Life’ Plea, DHS Statement Rejecting He Was Dead.”

DHS disputed Luis Manuel Rivas Velásquez’s death because they say he did not die. He fainted. Media outlets snapped up a social media video from the Venezuelan’s girlfriend claiming Rivas Velásquez died at the southwest Florida detention facility because of “negligence from the United States.” It wasn’t true.

“Rivas Velásquez fainted and was taken to the hospital out of precaution,” McLaughlin said in response to reporters’ questions. “ICE takes its commitment to protecting those in its custody very seriously. We ensure illegal aliens have access to adequate medical care.” 

“No one has died,” DHS said in correcting the claims that detainees have perished since the opening of Alligator Alcatraz early last month.

Rivas Velásquez, a “Venezuelan Influencer” reportedly known as “Luis Frío” on social media, is “an undocumented criminal offender with a criminal history that includes arrest for robbery in Miami,” according to DHS. 

‘No Food Is Infested with Worms’

Just days after the Florida facility opened, the left-bending Associated Press ran a story headlined “Detained immigrants at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ say there are worms in food and wastewater on the floor.” Citing illegal immigrants who don’t want to be deported, the story claims that, beyond worm-infested food, “Toilets don’t flush, flooding floors with fecal waste, and mosquitoes and other insects are everywhere.”

“Detainees are said to go days without showering or getting prescription medicine, and they are only able to speak by phone to lawyers and loved ones. At times the air conditioners abruptly shut off in the sweltering heat,” the AP reported on July 11, just over a week after the first detainees arrived. 

Stephanie Hartman of the Florida Division of Emergency Management told the news outlet, “The reporting on the conditions in the facility is completely false,” and that the holding facility “meets all required standards and is in good working order.”

The AP story was circulated far and wide, running on CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, U.S. News & World Report, and myriad other corporate media “news” operations — for intended effect. There’s only one problem, according to DHS. The story wasn’t true.

“Any allegations of ‘inhumane’ conditions at Alligator Alcatraz are false,” the agency said in its release. “No food is infested with worms. No feces are overflowing from toilets. Alligator Alcatraz does meet federal detention standards. All detainee facilities are clean.”

‘There Was No Hunger Strike’

NBC News pushed the spin cycle to overdrive with a story on Aug. 1 headlined “‘Alligator Alcatraz’ detainees on hunger strike for 10th day, protesting conditions.” It quotes a detainee identified as Pedro Hernández, who, according to NBC’s Miami bureau, arrived in the U.S. from Cuba in 2006. 

“We’ve all been hungry since Tuesday. I’m not going to eat another plate of food until they show us respect,” Hernández reportedly said in a recorded phone call from the facility. 

NBC didn’t even have the man’s name right. DHS confirmed the detainee’s name is Pedro Lorenzo Concepción and said he is “a convicted drug trafficker.” Lorenzo Concepción, who in media photos doesn’t appear to have skipped a lot of meals in his time, reportedly ended his “hunger strike” after 17 days. 

DHS says there was no hunger strike, just a “lie … spread by a criminal illegal alien.”

“Here are the facts: there was no hunger strike at Alligator Alcatraz. For the record: During hunger strikes, ICE continues to provide three meals a day, delivered to the detained alien’s room, and an adequate supply of drinking water or other beverages,” DHS told The Federalist. “Ensuring the safety, security, and well-being of individuals in our custody is a top priority at ICE.” It’s also the law. 

‘Space for Attorneys’

A July 9 story in Forbes claimed attorneys couldn’t see their clients at Alligator Alcatraz. The piece quoted attorney Magdalena Cuprys, who represented a Honduran national sent to the facility.

“We were advised that they had no instructions on how to handle attorney visits,” Cuprys told Forbes. 

Reached for comment on Wednesday, Cuprys told The Federalist in a phone interview that access has improved, although she fears attorney-client conversations are being monitored. 

“They have definitely improved. I’m not going to say they haven’t, but I still have concerns about privacy and access,” the attorney said. She said her client appeared at the border in 2013 as an unaccompanied minor and was “allowed release.” He applied for asylum but his case was administratively closed, she said. 

Leftist groups, including the ACLU, have sued over the issue. 

DHS said that allegations that illegal aliens don’t have access to attorneys is false. 

“The facility maintains a physical space for attorneys to meet with their clients,” the department said. “Additionally, Florida established an email address for attorneys to submit requests to speak to the specific illegal aliens.” 

‘Beyond Disgusting’

Perhaps the most sinister and false claims about Alligator Alcatraz involved incinerators.

This time, TikTokers pushed videos spreading a lie that the facility was installing waste furnaces, hinting that the incinerators would be used in the way Nazi Germany used crematoriums to dispose of the dead bodies of Jews. The TikToker who originally shared the video later said her comments weren’t true “as of right now,” but the damage had been done. The bogus claim had been seen by millions. 

DHS called the false assertion “beyond disgusting.” 

“From comparisons to the modern-day Nazi gestapo to now implying incinerators are being used at Alligator Alcatraz for nefarious purposes, the vilification of ICE must stop,” Homeland Security said. 

Even biased “fact-checker” PolitiFact was forced to acknowledge it “found no evidence supporting this claim.”

“A Florida’s 37-page immigration enforcement plan proposal makes no mention of ‘incinerators’, a ‘crematorium’, ‘cremation chamber’, or ‘cremating facility’ to be installed at the proposed sites,” Politifact wrote in a piece published on July 10. “We saw no incinerators in photos captured by The Associated Press, Reuters or Getty Images.”

But leftists don’t concern themselves with a bad lie for what they believe to be the greater good. 

‘It’s Not the Four Seasons’

As Democrats spin the truth for political gain, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the purpose of Alligator Alcatraz, constructed in days, is to “facilitate increased frequency and numbers of deportations of illegal aliens.” With an adjacent runway, that’s exactly what the temporary detention center is doing, he said. It’s what President Trump promised when he campaigned on the most significant mass illegal alien deportation campaign in U.S. history. Democrats, who aided and abetted an illegal immigrant invasion of the U.S., are trying to stop Trump’s efforts. 

Blaise Ingoglia, Florida’s chief financial officer, told LiveNow from Fox News that Alligator Alcatraz is a holding facility, with detainees staying no longer than three weeks before they are shipped off to other countries. And illegal immigrants are getting the message that the Trump administration means what it says. 

“It’s not the Four Seasons. It’s not the Ritz-Carlton. These are criminal aliens who have been caught by DHS, ICE, and are sent there … on final deportation orders,” Ingoglia said. “This is not meant to be, you know, a weekend in paradise. And let us not forget … these are the same type of facilities that were built under the Obama administration.” 

DHS’s McLaughlin questioned corporate media’s integrity and priorities. 

“When will the media stop peddling hoaxes about illegal alien detention centers and start focusing on American victims of illegal alien crime?” the assistant secretary said.