Florida Democrats Release Statement on Invitation to Tour Everglades Detention Center

Washington, July 9, 2025
“As Members of Congress, we were planning an unannounced oversight visit of this Everglades detention facility. Today, we received notice from the state announcing its own planned ‘tour’ at the same time, on the same day. We do not need permission to conduct lawful oversight.

Washington, DC – Today, U.S. Representatives Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-25), Lois Frankel (FL-22), Darren Soto (FL-9), Maxwell Frost (FL-10), and Jared Moskowitz (FL-23) released a joint statement after receiving an invitation from the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) to tour the detention center in the Everglades:

“As Members of Congress, we were planning an unannounced oversight visit of this Everglades detention facility. Today, we received notice from the state announcing its own planned ‘tour’ at the same time, on the same day. We do not need permission to conduct lawful oversight.

“This sanitized tour is not real oversight. We expect ICE and FDEM will try to paper over the inhumane treatment of detained people with a limited, scrubbed visit and rehearsed answers.

“Given reports of horrific living conditions, rampant denial of due process, the risk of death and destruction from a hurricane, plus irreversible damage to the Everglades and tribal lands, we will attend this scripted 'tour' to see the conditions and speak to detainees and guards. We will also return, unannounced, to conduct real oversight as the law allows and the American people demand.”

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