Overview

• The Florida Division of Emergency Management has invited state legislators and members of Congress to a 90-minute guided tour on Saturday after previously blocking unscheduled oversight visits
• Democratic lawmakers argue the restricted tour falls short of their statutory right to conduct unannounced inspections of state-run facilities
• Detainees report dire conditions inside the makeshift camp, including no water for bathing, maggot-infested meals, constant bright lighting and swarms of insects
• Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to halt the facility over alleged harm to protected wetlands and species
• The 3,000-bed center was erected in eight days under Gov. Ron DeSantis’s emergency order to bolster President Trump’s deportation campaign without standard environmental review, with FEMA reimbursement still pending