“We Are All Sick”: ICE Accused of Covering Up Disease Outbreak at Alligator Alcatraz, Stealing Prisoners' Medical Records

"They are treating us like dogs, like animals," Alligator Alcatraz prisoner Luis Velasquez said. For 24 hours, his family presumed him dead after he collapsed inside the prison.

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An immigration attorney representing a Venezuelan man imprisoned at the controversial “Alligator Alcatraz” ICE prison in the Everglades is accusing the Department of Homeland Security and Florida officials of covering up a contagious disease outbreak running rampant inside the outdoor prison camp.

“We are all sick in this jail, some are worse than others,” Luis Manuel Rivas Velasquez, a 38-year-old Venezuelan national imprisoned at Alligator Alcatraz, said in a statement 24 hours after he collapsed and lost consciousness inside the prison. According to his family and lawyers, Velazquez had repeatedly complained to prison guards and staff about having chest pains and illness only to be denied medical care.

“I can’t help you,” Velazquez’ attorneys claim was the response he received from a guard when he asked for medical assistance.

After being hospitalized, Velazquez went on to issue a dire plea for help.

“They are treating us like dogs, like animals. People are suffering from lack of medicine. Somebody needs to do something to help us,” he said in a statement. Other family members of prisoners have told attorneys that sickness is spreading across the prison.

The suffering Velazquez, and his family, endured over the last 72 hours is not an isolated incident — but representative of widespread torture occurring at the makeshift outdoor ICE prison, his attorneys said in a lengthy statement on Thursday.

“Crimes of historic proportions are taking place,” Eric Lee and James H. Holis, attorneys with the firm Lee & Godshall-Bennet who are representing Rivas Velasquez, said about the current conditions inside Alligator Alcatraz. They accused the Department of Homeland Security and Florida officials of doing everything they can to conceal the horrific conditions — and prisoner abuse —occurring inside the prison. “This sadistic human experiment must be immediately shut down.”

What happened to Rivas Velasquez is a prime example.

In audio exclusively obtained by Status Coup (listen below), a prisoner at Alligator Alcatraz told his girlfriend on Tuesday that he witnessed another prisoner faint while guards delayed medical treatment.

“I think they fainted, I don’t know, they [the guards] don’t even know how to act because they don’t know how to revive someone,” the prisoner recounted, adding that he didn’t know if his fellow prisoner had died or not.

The man he described is believed to have been Rivas Velasquez.

According to Rivas Velasquez’ attorneys, the 38-year-old, described as previously in good health, collapsed inside Tent 5. Velasquez repeatedly begged guards at the facility for medical attention over complaints of chest pains and illness — only to be denied.

Based on eyewitness accounts from inside the camp, Luis Manuel Rivas Velasquez lost consciousness and became unresponsive, before being removed from the prison. ICE did not reach out to the family to inform them of his medical emergency or subsequent hospitalization. Based on accounts they were hearing second hand about him collapsing — and not hearing from Velazquez or any staff from Alligator Alcatraz — his partner and sister both believed him to be dead for over 24 hours.

They both issued desperate appeals on social media, begging for the return of his body to Venezuela. Status Coup secured a human translator to translate their words, originally in Spanish, to English.

“This message is about the deceased Luis Manuel so the world knows that yesterday he died due to the negligence of the United States government,” said his partner Roxanna Navas. “He asked for medical attention — he was very sick, had fever, sores, and chest pain—and they didn’t give it to him, they let him die there. He had signed his deportation papers to be sent back to Venezuela, but they didn’t take them out, didn’t send him, nothing. They let him die there like a dog.

We need help, we need his body to be transferred. It’s not fair that he died like this, in this way—they didn’t give him medical attention, they didn’t let him bathe. He would call us and tell us they hadn’t eaten, nothing. Please help us, please. Share this, we need your help. We need this to reach many people because many more could keep dying there, and it already happened to us. We don’t want this to keep happening to others.

We need your help so he can be transferred to Venezuela, so his family can give him their final goodbye. Please help.”

His sister, Ada, also released a statement via social media.

“I am making this video to inform you that yesterday my brother died in the Alligator Alcatraz detention center.

My brother had been detained for days, waiting to be deported. I am making this video to ask for your help—so that my brother's body can be deported to our country and so that justice is served.

All the people there are in a dire situation. They are not given food, and when they are, it's only once a day — a frozen sandwich. They are sick. My brother fell ill; everyone there has COVID inside. Yesterday, he asked for medical assistance, and they denied it to him.

Please, people, the public, the Venezuelan government — we ask for help so that my brother's body can be returned to our country and so that there is justice.”

ICE did not respond to questions about whether they had informed the family about Velasquez’ medical event and hospitalization.

Spanish-language outlet La Tijera reported his death on Wednesday after speaking with family members — who, again, believed him to be dead.

It wasn’t until Thursday that Velasquez was finally able to contact his family and counsel — 48 hours later. By this point, ICE still had not reached out to the family, Velazquez’ attorneys said.

Velasquez informed them that he’d been hospitalized at Kendall Hospital for an apparent “respiratory infection.” He alleged that, despite having trouble breathing, he was "handcuffed tightly to his hospital bed while guards with guns mocked him and spoke to one another about the need to be ‘tough’ on him.”

He told his attorneys that after his return to so-called “Alligator Alcatraz,” officials took his medical records and would not return them to him.

His sister, Mercedes Velasquez Pereira, said the scale of the outbreak is being hidden.

“According to the testimonies we have received, 80% of the people detained there are not either. This is not an isolated situation: it is a humanitarian emergency,” she said. “My brother does not deserve to be treated like an animal, nor to live in conditions that violate his dignity and heath. without medical attention, and in this heat. What is happening is unacceptable, and he must receive immediate attention.”

When asked whether they could confirm Luis Manuel Rivas Velasquez’ condition, ICE maintained that the agency “takes its commitment to protecting those in its custody very seriously. We ensure illegal aliens have access to adequate medical care.”

Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary, felt the need to preface her response by saying:

“Luis Manuel Rivas Velasquez is a criminal illegal alien with a rap sheet that includes an arrest for robbery in Miami.” She added, “Rivas Velasquez fainted and was taken to the hospital out of precaution. ICE takes its commitment to protecting those in its custody very seriously. We ensure illegal aliens have access to adequate medical care.”

ICE did not respond to follow up questions about why this was pertinent information to include and whether the Velasquez family — who believed their loved one to be dead for 24 hours — had ever been informed by Alligator Alcatraz staff or any other Florida officials that he had suffered a medical emergency and was hospitalized. They did not confirm, or deny, allegations made by Velasquez’ attorney that there is a massive outbreak of contagious disease at Alligator Alcatraz.

Status Coup will continue investigating this important story. If you have information about current conditions inside Alligator Alcatraz, or have been in touch with any prisoners, please contact us at info@statuscoup.com. We also seek to return once again to report ON-THE-GROUND at Alligator Alcatraz. If you appreciate independent, on-scene investigative reporting, please support Status Coup as a paying member for as low as $5 dollars a month.

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