Democrats have complaints about Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ internment camp for illegal immigrants: “Alligator Alcatraz,” the training airport on the edge of the Everglades that in recent weeks has become a staging ground for deportations from the Donald Trump administration.

“This place needs to be shut the hell down,” said U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz Saturday. “They’re abusing human beings here.”

Democrats wanted to visit the facility Saturday, but instead they were faced with a guided tour. But despite the curation, Wasserman Schultz said she heard people “screaming,” including a man who claimed to be “poisoned by Clorox in the water.”

“32 detainees per cage. That is the only thing inside those cages are the bunk. They are bunk beds, and there are three tiny toilets that are toilet units that have a sink attached to it. So they essentially drink, they get their drinking water and they brush their teeth, where they poop in the same unit,” she said.

Sen. Shevrin Jones said people with “traffic infractions” were inside, disputing that the “worst of the worst” were in there, and that his “colleagues” were “taking this as a game,” noting it was 83 degrees in there.

State Rep. Anna V. Eskamani suggested the state cleaned up the facility ahead of the lawmakers’ visit.

“They allowed them to take a shower and gave them new clothes, and the food, all of a sudden it is better,” she said. “This is a show.”

U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz said in case of a hurricane, detainees would be evacuated to the facility they came from previously.

U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost said his colleagues might have an ad hoc hearing and a tour of the facility, which he said was “dehumanizing” people.

“I saw young men who looked like me. I saw myself in those cages,” Frost said.

Republicans see it differently.

Sen. Blaise Ingoglia said there were no issues.

“Just finished my walkthrough of Alligator Alcatraz. Here’s what I saw: The rhetoric coming from Democrats does not match the reality. The place is well run, safe, secure, clean and air conditioned. We reviewed the intake area, medical tent, mess hall, recreation areas and sleeping quarters. I actually laid down in one of the beds and it was really comfortable. So, any complaints about squalor conditions is nothing more than bullsh*t and political theater,” said the Spring Hill Republican who is being considered as the appointed Chief Financial Officer.

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Republican gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds continues to make his case to be Governor, talking to younger activists Friday at Turning Point USA’s gathering in Tampa.

Alone in the race for the GOP nomination for the moment, the Naples Republican stressed his biggest endorsement from President Donald Trump, while noting that Gov. Ron DeSantis and his predecessor Rick Scott have done a “tremendous” job.

“We’ve had great policy and great leadership in our state. Now it’s time to look to the future, diversifying our economy, making sure that the best jobs that exist anywhere in America exist here, making Florida the financial capital of the world, making our roads more efficient and better, cleaning up our insurance markets because we got to do that, you young people, you haven’t gotten there yet, but I’m telling you, baby. Insurance.. It’s tough,” the current Congressman said Friday in Tampa.

As other Republicans have before him, the native New Yorker worked his talking points about New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, painting the current state assemblyman as a radical socialist who would create government grocery stores.

“I’ve stood in those lines as a young kid. That’s the history, that’s the truth. The government’s so bad at it, they got out of that business and just gave people these things called food stamps. We now call them SNAP Benefits. And that’s what they gave people to go to the supermarket and buy it for themselves, because at some point, somebody realized giving away food out of a government store is not what the government should be doing,” Donalds said.

He also offered a warning to New Yorkers who might flee Mamdani’s collectivist reign in Florida to leave their politics back home.

“If you come here to Florida to be free, to have no state income tax. to live in a state where we want you to innovate, to be successful, where govern’s not in your way. If you come here, do not vote for the same stupid people in Florida. Don’t vote for the same stupid people,” Donalds urged.

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