BREAKING NEWS 'Alligator Alcatraz' worker fired after massive security breach amid claims of deplorable conditions at facility
The TikTokker, only identified as @skitheteamroski, started posting videos from the migrant detention center on Monday - just days after the first group of detainees arrived at the hastily-built facility in the swamps of the Florida Everglades.
In his first video, which showed him lying on an orange and navy blue bunkbed wearing light-colored jeans, the videographer wrote that he was 'LIVE FROM ALLIGATOR ALCATRAZ...TUNE IN FOR THE ONLY AVAILABLE LIVE FOOTAGE FROM THE "CONCENTRATION CAMP" THAT TRUMP BUILT.'
As of Saturday, the video received 5.2 million views.
Other videos showed him and his coworkers rescuing a turtle at the site, driving around the facility in a golf cart and sitting at a table poking at a mysterious food item.
'Doesn't look very appetizing does it,' the man tells his followers, using an application to change his voice.
It is unclear what the man's role was at the facility, but the TikTokker has since started an online fundraiser saying he was fired for sharing footage from the site and is now trying to raise money to get a lawyer.
'Many people want me to share my side of the story of what's actually going on inside, but I can't fully explain and show what I know without having a lawyer just in case this situation gets pushed to the next level,' he wrote in the fundraiser, which identifies him as a Jacksonville, Florida resident.
'I have life changing information and they are trying to stop me from exposing what's really going on, so before I go completely public with this issue, I need to make sure I'm fully protected and that I have a lawyer to help out when things start to get serious,' the videographer vowed.
'As long as I'm able to afford a lawyer, I have no problem exposing and posting what information I have,' he continued, noting that the 'next step is to try and get Alligator Alcatraz shut down.'
The facility has already come under fire amid claims that migrants were forced to bathe in toilet water and are being held in freezing cold tents while they battle 'elephant-sized mosquitoes' at the former site of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport.
One detainee, Cuban musician Leamsy Isquierdo has even claimed that the center's roughly 400 inmates are only given one meal a day - which is often infested with maggots.
Other detainees have reported pest infestations, with one telling his wife that grasshoppers 'the size of his hand' were invading their tents, along with the largest mosquitos he has ever seen, the Miami Herald reports.
Eveling Ortiz, whose boyfriend Vladimir Miranda is detained at the facility, also told NBC Miam i that one detainee was taken to the hospital because his face was swollen from so many bites.
Adding to the concerns are the neurological virus-carrying mosquitoes that already infest the area.
'You can get bitten like 50 times in a minute and its really difficult to be outside with mosquitos fighting you... Especially in the summer time and especially this year,' said Durland Fish, professor emeritus of epidemiology at the Yale University School of Public Health, who has studied the specific location of the facility, Big Cypress Swamp.
'If you put a bunch of people in this area, there's a big chance that somebody can get infected with some of these viruses' like St. Louis encephalitis, West Nile encephalitis and the Everglades virus, which is the most common.
State representative Anna Eskamani also told the Daily Mail her office has been receiving reports that there is no running water at the facility. One particularly concerning report said detainees had been using toilet water to bathe themselves.
But whenever an employee tried to help out the inmates, @skitheteamroski said they would be reprimanded.
'A lot of officers quit just because they were trying to help out the residents/inmates,' he said in a TikTok story on Tuesday, according to the Miami New Times.
'And their bosses kept telling them, "If you help them out, like give them water, take them to the bathroom, you will be fired."'
He then explained in another story the next day that he started the GoFundMe to protect himself.
'I have no reason to try and profit off of the people they have locked up in cages,' he reassured his followers, the Herald reports.
'Trump is a messed up individual,' he added.
Daily Mail has reached out to the TikTokker and the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which runs the site, for comment about his claims.
But state officials have previously denied the reports about inhumane conditions at the detention center.
'Detainees have access to potable water from on-site tanks refilled by 6,000-gallon trucks. Each individual is issued a personal cup they can refill at any time, and bottled water is provided at meals. Tanks are regularly sanitized, flushed, and tested to ensure water quality. Full-size showers are available daily with no restriction on bathing water,' the Division of Emergency Management earlier told Daily Mail.
'Detainees receive three meals per day plus the option of a late evening meal upon request, and there is working air conditioning throughout the facility.
'Detainees have access to regular phone and video calls with their attorneys or families.'
The Department of Homeland Security has also said it is 'SHAMEFUL that the fake news media continues to peddle the false narrative of criminal illegal aliens convicted of rape, homicide, and child sex crimes.'
'ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens,' the agency wrote in a post on X.
'All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with lawyers and their family members.'
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