Deep in the Everglades, in a patch of swamp surrounded by snakes, alligators and relentless mosquitos, Florida has opened a makeshift detention center that critics say is unlike anything the country has seen before. Detainees there are being held out of view of the federal system, cut off from lawyers and families, and in conditions that advocates describe as both unlawful and dangerous.

“This facility has already become a disaster in the first few weeks of its operations, with mounting reports of disease, wrongful removals and people being denied all kinds of basic rights,” said Spencer Amdur, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project.

The site, hastily built on land prone to flooding, has been nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz.” Immigrants’ rights groups — including the A

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