A man granted protection under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program has been sent to a newly opened detention center in the Everglades, known as Alligator Alcatraz, which was designed to hold illegal immigrants awaiting deportation. 

Attorneys for the man, whose identity they have not disclosed, say he was brought to America from Mexico when he was a minor and that he has been living in the country for two decades and received legal status through the DACA program. 

One of the lawyers, Josephine Arroyo, told the Orlando Sentinel that her client was issued a citation last year, but it was mailed to an address where he no longer lived. He was arrested during a traffic stop and held at the Orange County jail. 

His family paid a bond to have him released from jail, but he was reportedly detained by ICE and sent to Alligator Alcatraz last week, where he has remained.

Ms. Arroyo told the Miami Herald, “The narrative is that only violent criminals are being sent to Alligator Alcatraz. We don’t know why” he was sent there.

Alligator Alcatraz opened at an airstrip deep in the Everglades earlier this month and was quickly championed by President Trump, who visited the facility. After its opening, it made headlines after a storm that lasted about 45 minutes led to rain seeping into the tent structures at the location. Officials, including Mr. Trump, have joked that the wildlife would provide a deterrent to detainees trying to escape. 

Along with environmental concerns about the detention center, critics have decried the conditions of the facilities where migrants are being held and raised concerns that individuals who have not committed serious crimes would be sent there. 

Attorneys for the DACA recipient said their client had complained that the food was rotten and the air-conditioning units were not functioning. He also said he had not been allowed to shower for several days. 

The archbishop of Miami, Thomas Wenski, condemned the facility in a statement this week, saying, “It is alarming to see enforcement tactics that treat all irregular immigrants as dangerous criminals.” He said the detention center is “intentionally provocative” and that it is “corrosive of the common good” to “speak of the deterrence value of ‘alligators and pythons.’”

The communications director for the Florida attorney general, Jeremy Redfern, defended Alligator Alcatraz in an interview with Fox News, as he said the “left-wing press continues to spend their time amplifying false reports, but the reality is that there are monsters awaiting deportation within Alligator Alcatraz far worse than the monsters lurking in the surrounding Everglades.”

“This group of murderers, rapists, and gang members are just a small sample of the deranged psychopaths that Florida is helping President Trump and his administration remove from our country,” Mr. Redfern said. 

ICE referred the Sun to state officials for questions about the matter, as Alligator Alcatraz is not run by the federal government. They did not respond by the time of publication. ICE did not address the report that its agents detained a DACA recipient.