They're. Torturing human beings. They're ruining the environment. They're enriching their donors by giving them these contracts. I mean, what's next? They're going to start robbing old ladies. Like, who are these people? - And how does anybody support this? - I go to, I go to, I go, this is. [00:00:18] This is sad, sad, hopeless. It's a type of torture. CNN spoke with eight detainees to hear firsthand accounts of what conditions are like on the inside. Because of the way that we have been treated, it has been a very terrible experience. [00:00:34] All of the toilets, when it rains, they overflow and the cells we're in fill up with sewage. Every time it does rain and storm, the toilets clog up. I no longer know when it's daytime or when it's nighttime. [00:00:50] I don't sleep. It's affecting me mentally and physically. More and more details about the horrible conditions that immigrants are being subjected to inside Alligator Alcatraz are starting to come out, and it's worse than we could have imagined, because of course it is. [00:01:07] First of all, sorry to the audience. I feel like I teased good news. That was not the good news. Part of this story. There is actually good news coming, regarding the Florida facility. But, Jake, what's your initial reaction to what we just heard from detainees in that clip? It's horrifying that this is happening in America. [00:01:26] Look, there's a couple of pieces of good news. The rest is all bad. Like, we're going to give you terrible details here because that's what's actually happening inside America now. And now, by the way, the right wingers in different states are thinking of like, different horrible torture chambers they can set up in their own states. [00:01:43] Right? So for those on the radical right, they love this kind of cruelty. But the American people do not like this kind of cruelty. This isn't what America. If you think this is what America stands for, you got the wrong country, brother. Okay, so. But now good people are going to there to deliver people food and comfort and aid [00:02:04] because they've heard the horrific stories. So we'll talk about that a little bit more in a minute as well. Okay. So let let's get into the good news for once. It was reported yesterday that a federal judge ordered a halt to any construction at Alligator Alcatraz for environmental reasons. [00:02:21] So this is a reporting it says that Florida must must stop construction at an immigration detention center in the Everglades for 14 days, a federal judge ruled on Thursday, granting at least a temporary victory to environmentalists, who say the facility [00:02:37] has the potential to cause serious harm to sensitive wetlands and endangered species. So this means that the state cannot install any more lighting, paving, fencing or any other infrastructure for two weeks. So here's more. Thursday's order was issued by U.S. [00:02:54] District Judge Kathleen Williams with the Southern District of Florida in a lawsuit filed by friends of the Everglades and Centers for Biological Diversity in June. The Miccosukee Tribe's request to intervene was granted a month later. [00:03:10] The complaint argued that the detention center threatens the fragile ecosystem of the Everglades, including endangered species. Violated federal law by failing to pass an environmental review. Did not allow the public opportunity to comment. [00:03:25] Threatens to undermine or reverse billions of dollars worth of Everglades restoration work and improperly converted county preserve land into a federal detention facility. So while DeSantis has insisted that there wouldn't be any [00:03:42] sort of environmental impact, environmental groups have stated that that was obviously impossible because of vehicle traffic bringing in food and water and machinery and construction and numerous generators running and waste collection. Granted, it doesn't seem like the first and last bullet that I just mentioned [00:04:01] are actually being done. So the increased light pollution from a rarely used airstrip to an operational detention facility, with thousands of detainees and staff present, is another concern, as it can disrupt local species used to used to natural daylight [00:04:19] and night time cycles like the nocturnal Florida panther, an endangered species known to be present in the area. Now the facility will still remain open and operational, but it's at least a small step in the right direction in an effort to shut down the facility eventually. [00:04:37] So now I have to tell you the bad news. We're going to get into more details about what is coming out from the detainees who are currently in Alligator Alcatraz. Here is what is going on inside the walls, one detainee, who is a Cuban national, told reporters. [00:04:54] It's only a matter of time before people begin dying in custody at the hands of experienced, racist and power inexperienced. I'm sorry, racist and power hungry guards. They said this has to come out one way or another because they're going to kill us here. [00:05:10] Little by little, no one pays attention to us. I've been here for 30 days seeing injustice and mistreatment. It doesn't stop. They abuse us in every way. With the food, in the bathroom, everything. Everything. They touch us. [00:05:25] All our groins, our rears to see if we've brought cookies. A little piece of fries. And they take it. They search us, they touch us a lot. They search and touch our whole bodies. In a weird way, we feel violated, I feel violated. [00:05:42] So he's not the only person this week to speak out about the conditions either. Earlier this week, NBC six Miami spoke to Lindsay, who is a former employee at the facility, who described it as inhumane. She said it's inhumane the way that they're keeping the residents at. [00:05:58] Lindsay, who provided NBC six paperwork showing she had started work on July 6th, her state certification as a corrections officer, and her contract with Gardaworld Federal Services, a security company that was awarded a contract worth nearly $38 million for staffing at the Ice facility. [00:06:17] They have no sunlight. There is no clock in there. They don't even know what time of day it is. They have no access to showers. They shower every other day or every four days. The bathrooms are backed up because you got so many people using them. So while she explained, the conditions for the staff were also [00:06:36] very rough, she expressed extreme empathy for the detainees, who noted many of them were not even criminals. Right. These are just normal people that the Trump administration has decided to lock up in this facility. Lindsay was fired pretty quickly after catching Covid one week into the job [00:06:53] and having to isolate. She says they accused her of altering medical paperwork submitted to the company, which she denies. But she also said these people are still human. They pulled them from their livelihood. They're scared. They don't speak our language. I was fired and yeah, I'm pissed off, but more so than ever, [00:07:12] like they're doing wrong. Okay. And yet, despite all of this, a disaster like a sister facility to alligator Alcatraz is about to open. So Kristi Noem just posted this on X saying coming soon to Indiana, [00:07:28] the Speedway slammer. Today we're announcing a new partnership with the state of Indiana to expand detention bed space by 1000 beds. Thanks to Governor Braun for his partnership to help remove the worst of the worst out of our country. [00:07:43] If you are in America illegally, you could find yourself in Indiana's Speedway Slammer. Avoid arrests and self-deport now using our app. And I also noticed there that she changed her profile picture to the South Park version of her. Really trying to lean into the criticism and, you know, [00:07:59] pretend like it doesn't bother them. Maz, we'll start with you. That was a lot that we just covered. There is some good stuff that happened there. They're pausing any further construction because obviously it's going to disrupt the Everglades. [00:08:15] That is a very sensitive ecosystem there. It's it's unique in this country and probably maybe even around the world. And you can't build a giant facility like that in the middle of the Everglades and then pretend that it's not going to have any kind of adverse effects on the water, [00:08:30] on the wetlands, on the animals that live there. And, you know, the way that they're treating the people is already so inhumane. Then obviously they don't care about things like the trees or the Panthers. You know, so like, of course they're going to fight back and they're going to say, you know, like, this isn't a real problem. [00:08:47] DeSantis already said that it wasn't going to affect that, which like it just none of it makes any sense. But then on top of that, this the revelations that have just come out about like the inappropriate touching and everything going on inside of alligator Alcatraz right now, [00:09:02] I don't even like saying that because it sounds like such a stupid name, but you know everything. It is just so much worse than what we thought was going on and could have been happening, just like the access to people's bodies. It's hard to wrap your head around and you don't want to. And then on top of everything, you remember that your tax dollars are funding [00:09:21] this thing and it is all so infuriating. Maz, what are your thoughts? Oh, I think it's great. No, I mean, who are these people? Like, how bad of a human being do you have to be? I mean, the irony is you've got guys like DeSantis claiming that he's a Christian. [00:09:39] So, yeah, sure, Christians do this kind of stuff to other people. These are the worst of the worst. And I'm talking about Trump on down. Think about it. They're torturing human beings. They're ruining the environment. They're enriching their donors by giving them these contracts. [00:09:56] I mean, what's next? They're going to start robbing old ladies. Like, who are these people? And how do how does anybody support this? And I know how people support this is because they've been lying from day one. Donald Trump famously during the campaign, kept saying there's 10 million violent [00:10:14] criminals, then there's 20 million. He just kept saying, all these violent criminals, violent criminals find out there aren't that many violent criminals that are not citizens. We probably have more. We have more citizen violent criminals. And, even if they are criminals, they are not getting their due process. [00:10:32] They shouldn't be in this kind of I mean, America is supposed to be standing for something. This is like the Abu Ghraib of of Florida rather than alligator Alcatraz. How about Abu Ghraib? Because that's what it is. Or Abu Ghraib. It's just it's it's it's embarrassing. [00:10:50] It's inhumane. We've lost our compass. Like where, where where we're like, what is America become when you when you see this stuff and the fact that nobody on the right is following the money and going, oh, they're enriching their donors and themselves by creating this. [00:11:08] Because, again, going back to the campaign, we're going to deport this money. We're going to deport that many never talked about what's actually going to have to happen, which is we're gonna have to send Ice agents into the streets. And then where are we going to keep these people? He's going to just put them on a plane and send them. Know you're going to put them into these concentration camps. [00:11:24] And now you got your speedway. What is she calling it? Speedway. Something or other. Glamor. Glamor. - The speedway slammer in Indiana. - Speedway slammer like they. Oh, they got great names. You know, this is the the jail of La Jolla or whatever. [00:11:40] Just. Just idiotic. Stupid. And they bask in it. And I hope Kristi Noem does put that picture of herself on her Twitter, because it actually looks better than she is. Yeah. So, guys, you know, Maz asked them, what are they going to do next? [00:11:57] Like, rob little old ladies or maybe shoot puppies? Oh, right. Kristi Noem did shoot puppies. And then she got the Department of Homeland Security job afterwards, after we all knew. Well, why do you hire someone like that for the cruelty? [00:12:12] Not despite the cruelty, but because of the cruelty. Oh, she's willing to shoot innocent little puppies. Perfect. We'll get her to brutalize human beings. The cruelty is growing and growing. And this isn't cute. So now five other states are going to do it, and they're all. [00:12:29] I'm sure they're all going to have stupid, goofy names. Like Maz was saying. The Texas, Mississippi, South Carolina are among the states. The Carolina catastrophe, the Texas torture chamber, by the way, those haven't come out yet, and I'm afraid of giving them ideas. [00:12:46] And if you get right, if you think if you're in the part of MAGA that thinks that, oh, my God, the Texas torture chamber sounds so amazing, you have no idea what kind of bubble you're in. The rest of the country does not think torture chambers [00:13:01] sound awesome or American. Okay. And the polling seems to be indicating that we are asking you guys, do you think this cruelty towards immigrants is going to backfire on Donald Trump? We're asking that in the live chat shows, live 6 to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 67% think it's going to backfire in the polling so far. [00:13:21] It is backfiring. They the American people, just like look, Rogan said it. A lot of people are saying it, but I think that he nailed it on this one. And as he's one of those podcasters that went to Trump but had earlier supported Bernie, so they are actually, in my opinion, independent. [00:13:37] They lean right for sure. Right? But when it comes to this issue, he said, look, we signed up for getting rid of undocumented criminals. As Mars was talking about. We signed up for closing the border. We didn't sign up for gratuitous cruelty and make us all look like jerks [00:13:54] and terrible people and abuse folks, etc. And since they don't have due process, we don't even know how many of them are actually criminals. So to do this to innocent people, let alone guilty people, it's just a nightmare in every way. All right, finally, I promised a little bit of good news. [00:14:11] So some of our staff went to netroots recently. That's a good progressive conference that's put together every year. And, and one of them ran into this woman. I don't want to say her name without getting permission. But she found out. Found out that you could actually deliver food to Alligator Alcatraz. [00:14:29] So she started driving in, to give them food over and over again, because she heard that they were getting food with maggots in it. Right. So there are a lot of people with beautiful, open hearts in this country. We want to do the right thing because this is a good country, but this is not us. [00:14:45] And if you think this is what America should be, I think you have a really dark image of America. And most Americans don't share that dark image. So there's got to be political ramifications for this. If you don't throw them out, they're going to get encouraged and they're going to do [00:15:01] all of the things that we talked about, and they're going to set up new torture chambers, and they're going to say to the rest of the world, yeah, this is what America is now like this, this force for darkness. Don't do that. Don't do that to this country. And I think the great majority of us agree that's not the right way to go. [00:15:17] Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets his wings. Totally not true. But it does keep you updated on our live shows.