Dems Visit Inside America's Concentration Camp

"I saw 32 people per cage—about 6 cages in one tent. People were yelling, 'Help me, help me'," said Florida Representative Maxwell Frost.

For the first time, Democratic lawmakers were allowed to tour Donald Trump's Everglades concentration camp. They said what they witnessed was "disturbing" and "disgusting."

After being previously denied entry to the internment facility nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz" by the sociopathic right, three Democratic congresspeople from Florida—Reps. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Jared Moskowitz, and Maxwell Frost—visited the remote internment camp, along with another group of Republicans, as part of a state-arranged tour.

Detainees have previously described heinous conditions to their attorneys, including worm and maggot-infested food, sweltering heat, and the denial of medication, lack of clean drinking water, and denial of showers for days at a time. They're being treated worse than dogs at a pound.

Democrats who visited the facility were not allowed to speak with detainees or see their conditions up close, but their descriptions of the facilities at a press conference following the visit paint an inhumane, gut-wrenching picture.

Wasserman-Schultz described the facility as an "internment camp" where detainees are "essentially packed into cages."

"Wall-to-wall humans. 32 detainees per cage," she said. This, she noted, is unusual for immigration facilities, like the nearby Krome detention center in Miami-Dade County, where detainees are allowed to roam freely between buildings.

"The only thing inside those cages are their bunk beds," she said. She described the unused dorm they toured, where there were already "bugs all over the mattresses that had not yet been used."

"There are three tiny toilet units that have a sink attached to it," she said. "They get their drinking water, and they brush their teeth where they poop, in the same unit," she continued.

"Some of the biggest complaints we've heard is, yes, there's three toilets, but a lot of the time, only one is working," he said. "They get backed up: Feces being spread everywhere."

The area just outside the tents that housed the detainees was 83°F and said it was likely much hotter inside due to the body heat.

Moskowitz then noted it is estimated to cost $450 million per year to run the concentration camp. "Why are they spending all this money for this?" he asked. "One can't help but understand and conclude that this is a total cruel political stunt meant to have a spectacle of political theater."

The Trump administration has described the facility as a holding tank for "the worst of the worst" criminals as they await deportation. But according to reporting by the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times, only a third of the people in the facility have criminal convictions, which range from crimes like attempted murder to traffic violations. More than 250 of the people in the facility have not been convicted of or even charged with a crime. Ever.

In a video filmed while riding back from the camp, Frost spoke even more candidly about what he saw and how much it disturbed him.

"People were yelling, 'Help me, help me!' I heard in the back someone say, 'I'm a U.S. citizen,'" he continued. "And as we were walking away, they started chanting 'Libertad! Libertad! Libertad!'... 'Freedom.'"