Living in the infamous “Wannial Catraz” on the last day

When her son was taken to immigration custody, Yanniez Fernandez feared the worst. She then received a call from him in “Alligator Alcatraz.”

“We didn't know where he was until he called us,” Yanniejee told the BBC. “He said, 'Mama, they took me to the crocodile facility.' That's how he puts it down. ”

The temporary immigration detention center, built in the Everglades in Florida, quickly became a polarizing symbol of President Donald Trump's immigration policy.

Now, just two months after its opening, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says it will close it in accordance with the judge's order. The process is already underway – Border Tsar Tom Homan told the BBC at a press conference that only about 50% of the detainees remain.

The BBC spoke to the families of two inmates who moved in the past month.

That includes Michael Borrego Fernandez, son of Yanniez. He is part of an ongoing lawsuit alleging that inmates were denied face-to-face access to their lawyers.

The South Florida Detention Facility, a protected wetland famous for alligators built over eight days in the Everglades at the end of June, quickly became one of the most infamous immigration detention centers in the United States.

The facility, known as the Alligator Alcatraz, was built to accommodate around 3,000 people, but the number of individuals held in immigrant detention across the United States reached a record high of 59,000 in mid-August.

While open, it was lightning for America's debate over Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration. Some came to the centre to protest, while others stopped outside to take a proud selfie with the “Wannial Catraz” sign.

When the facility first opened, the Florida Republicans commissioned Wannial Catraz merchandise, t-shirts, caps and beer coolers.

“People are being fired for the idea that we are ultimately closing our borders and sending people out who are illegally violating people here abroad,” said Evan Power, Florida's GOP chairman.

“There are laws you have to follow,” Jack Lombardi, a Republican voter in Florida, told the BBC. “And you are a guest in our country. (…) In fact, you came to this country illegally. You have not come here.”

There have been conflicting reports of internal conditions. After a lawmaker's visit in July, Republicans said it was a well-cared and safe and clean facility. But Democrats described the conditions as mean, crowded and unsanitary.

Now, the judge has heard of a lawsuit alleging that the government failed to follow protocols when the facility was built, but has ordered a provisional injunction to close it within 60 days. The government is appealing to the decision, but said DHS would follow the judge's orders.

“I don't agree with the judge who made that decision,” Homan told the media on Thursday. “I went there. I walked to the detention area. I saw a clean and well maintained facility.”

Michael Fernandez moved from Cuba to the United States in 2019, and was granted temporary political asylum, his mother said.

After being caught up in a plan to build a hot tub in 2021, the judge ordered his removal. In June, he pleaded guilty to grand theft to avoid prison time, but says he didn't know that the company he worked for was fraudulent about his clients. His lawyer also says Michael was unaware of the removal order against him.

In January he was pulled by police while driving Nie to school. By June, he was under the control of U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) officers and moved to Florida Detention Center.

Michael was at “Wannial Catraz” within a week when Yanniejee received calls from several of the men detained with him.

“They said Michael woke up in blood,” she said. Michael was developing stage 4 bleeding (the most serious type). He was transported to hospital and underwent colon surgery.

Back at the facility, Michael, in short, monitored the phone and spoke to his mother. “He was in such a severe pain and couldn't even stay on the phone for more than a few seconds,” she said. He told her he was infected. “I felt he was going to have a heart attack,” Yanniejee said. “And they took him back to the hospital.”

Michael told her he had not been given painkillers and was handcuffed all night long so that he couldn't sleep if necessary after his surgery.

Yanniezie says Michael told her he didn't let him shower or give him a change of underwear when his briefs were covered in his blood and stool.

“This isn't hygienic. They left him there like a dog, like an abandoned person,” she added.

Michael's case is now part of a lawsuit against the Trump administration, claiming detainees cannot adequately access their lawyers through confidential, in-person meetings with lawyers. DHS told the BBC there is physical space for lawyers to meet with their clients.

The lawsuit is ongoing. He was moved to another facility on August 1st.

In a statement, DHS told the BBC: “These claims about Michael Borrego Fernandez are false,” they said the ice provided him with “appropriate medical care and medicine.”

The Florida Emergency Management Department said detainees have access to “24/7 medical care, including pharmacies, and clean, working facilities for sanitation, and can schedule both face-to-face and virtual appointments with lawyers.”

Michael's lawyer, Miche Gonzalez, says that immigration detention centers are considered non-agricultural, but where they oversee immigrants facing deportation — the conditions within these facilities are “deteriorating and fatal.”

“And that's more the forced camps in the Everglades,” he said.

While inside “Crocodile Alcatraz”, the only person who loved ones have become seriously ill.

It was her worst nightmare when Gladys' husband, Marco Alvarez Bravo, 38, was arrested and taken to detention facility.

He then disappeared for over a week.

It all began a month before Marco left his home in Tallahassee, Florida, to visit clients and provide a construction work estimate. Just outside their apartment, ice agents pulled him.

“I ask the officer, why are you taking him?” Gladys recalled. “He has legally pending status. (…) He is not a criminal.”

Marco arrived in the United States from Chile seven years ago. He entered the country on a tourist visa, which he overstayed and then applied for political asylum. Gladys, a US citizen who met him through a friend at the same time, said the claim was ongoing and he was allowed to remain in the country while waiting for a decision. They got married 11 days before their arrest.

In response to the BBC, the DHS claimed that Marco was “a known member of the South American theft group.” Gladys said her husband had no criminal history.

As soon as he was taken away, Gladys was worried about her husband's safety.

Marco has a genetic heart condition called Wolf-Pulkinson-White Syndrome, Gladys said. He received medical procedures to treat the illness in April this year and took daily heart medication. Gladys told the BBC that he also suffered from pneumonia following the procedure but was still suffering when he was arrested.

Initially, Gladys didn't know where he was taken as he didn't appear in the Ice Locator database, the official online database that shows where people were kept.

Gunther Sanabria, an immigration lawyer representing clients within “Crocodile Alcatraz,” said it is common for people bound by ice to not appear in the official locator system.

“We make people cry here cry every week,” he said.

However, Marco's appeal from within the Florida Detention Center reassured Gladys.

On August 14th, he called to tell her that there was a rupture in the kidney that affected his spine.

The next day, another man, who was being held along with Marco, called her, saying that her husband was in a wheelchair and had been taken to Florida Kendall Hospital.

It was the last she had heard of over a week. She checked on the ice locator every day, but couldn't find his name.

It took her eight days for her to find out what had happened.

“I can't believe this is actually happening,” she said. “Where is my husband?”

DHS told the BBC that Marco is in medical care but did not answer any specific questions about where he is currently in custody. In a statement to the BBC, they said: “He's on guard and can always call his family.”

Finally, she received a call from Marco on August 22nd. He was back in “Crocodile Alcatraz.” However, within a few days they were ready to move him again. Neither Marco nor Gladys knew where to go.

“I'm very nervous and very confused about everything that's going on, and my nerves are a complete shipwreck,” she said.

As of this week, it appears that Marco has been moved to the Chrome Detention Facility 35 miles.

The judge's decision to close the facility has hit the Trump administration, but other temporary facilities are being built in several Republican-led states, including a second facility called the “deportation depot” in Florida, and another facility in Indiana, which Homeland Security officials called the “Speedway Slammer.”

Aiming for the future, Homan said that “Alligator Alcatraz” is a “great transition facility” but does not view it as a long-term solution.

“I think ice cream needs more brick and mortar stores,” he told reporters. “We now have the money to build infrastructure… a permanent facility.”

Includes additional reports by Bernd Debusmann Jr.