1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

I am writing to you in a state of fury, grief, and moral urgency. I demand — not ask, DEMAND — that you take immediate, aggressive, and public action to permanently close the immigration detention facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” and that you use every tool at your disposal to abolish ICE entirely. Let me be absolutely clear about what is happening right now, in our name, with our tax dollars: As of this week, human beings are still being detained at Alligator Alcatraz — the facility in the Florida Everglades constructed by Governor Ron DeSantis and opened in July 2025. A federal judge ordered its closure. An appellate court, in a 2-1 ruling, blocked that order. The Trump administration and the state of Florida have treated every legal obstacle as an inconvenience to be appealed, circumvented, and defied. The conditions inside this facility have been documented by Amnesty International as constituting TORTURE. Detainees have been crammed into cages. They have been denied potable water. They have been served food infested with maggots. They have been placed in isolation structures described as 2x2 foot box-like cages. They have been bitten by mosquitoes in an un-air-conditioned swamp. People have gone on hunger strikes. People are rioting in desperation. Families cannot find their loved ones — the Miami Herald found that the whereabouts of two-thirds of over 1,800 men detained there in July CANNOT BE DETERMINED. These people have simply vanished into what legal experts are calling an extrajudicial black site. And DeSantis is already building a second one, called the “Deportation Depot.” This is not a political disagreement. This is a humanitarian catastrophe occurring on American soil, funded by American taxpayers, operated in deliberate defiance of federal court orders and international human rights law. I want to be clear about what I expect from each of you: Representative Carbajal: Introduce or cosponsor legislation to defund Alligator Alcatraz and all state-federal detention partnerships that circumvent federal civil rights oversight. Use your platform and your vote. Do not be silent. Senators Padilla and Schiff: I am aware that you have visited ICE detention facilities and expressed concern. That is not enough. Concern is not action. I demand that you use every available Senate procedure — including holds, filibuster, appropriations riders, and public pressure campaigns — to defund this facility, to pass the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act, and to introduce and champion legislation to abolish ICE and replace it with a humane, accountable immigration enforcement agency that respects the rule of law and basic human dignity. I demand the following specific actions: 1. Immediate legislative action to cut federal funding to Alligator Alcatraz and any similar state-run detention facility operating outside normal federal oversight and ICE detention standards. 2. A congressional investigation — with subpoena power — into the more than 1,200 detainees whose records have disappeared from ICE’s tracking database. 3. Introduction of and active campaigning for legislation to ABOLISH ICE and replace it with a transparent, rights-respecting federal immigration body. 4. Public, unambiguous statements condemning the Trump administration’s and DeSantis administration’s defiance of federal court orders. 5. Coordination with the Department of Justice to pursue contempt proceedings against officials who have flouted judicial orders. These are human beings. They have names. They have families. They have rights under the Constitution and under international law — rights being stripped from them every single day that this facility remains open. History is watching. Your constituents are watching. I am watching. Do not send me a form letter. Do not send me a list of bills you have already introduced. Tell me what you are going to DO — this week, this month — to close this facility and bring accountability to those responsible for the torture occurring inside it. I expect a substantive response within 10 business days. Respectfully but with the deepest urgency,