IT specialist hired to work at border patrol station is detained and shipped off to ‘Alligator Alcatraz’
An IT specialist hired to work at a border patrol station in Florida showed up on his first day only to be detained and shipped off to the infamous ‘Alligator Alcatraz’.
Project manager and systems engineer Angel Camacho, 43, was contracted for a job at the Dania Beach Border Patrol station last month.
His employer sent over his driver’s license and he was ‘approved’ for entry before he arrived.
But things took a drastic turn almost as soon as he set foot in the station when he was told by a Customs and Border Patrol official that they were ‘waiting for him’.
‘They say, “I have to detain you.” I said, “What are you? Joking?”‘ Camacho recalled in an interview with NBC 6 South Florida.
‘I have a work permit, Social Security number, driver’s license, pay my taxes every year,’ he added.
Camacho, who has a master’s in telecommunications, said he was thrown in a Border Patrol holding area overnight and then taken to the South Florida Detention Center known as Alligator Alcatraz for 30 days.
The father immigrated to the US from Venezuela on a tourist visa in 2016 but has applied for permanent residency as he is married to a US citizen.
Angel Camacho, 43, was shipped off to the ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ detention center after he was detained while working on a job for Customs and Border Patrol
The South Florida Detention Center, also known as ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ was opened last summer in the Florida Everglades. Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava is pictured above speaking to the media in front of the detention center’s entrance last August
Camacho said he was thrown in a holding cell overnight and was forced to stay at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ for 30 days. He was later released on bond and given an ankle monitor, pictured above
‘That’s the worst nightmare I’ve ever been in,’ he confessed. ‘That’s not a place for nobody, especially if you never commit any crime.’
Camacho said he was eventually granted a bond hearing, posted the $5,000 bail and was released with an ankle monitor.
He maintained that he was not a threat to America and said he believed he was detained by CBP officials because it was ‘easy’.
A spokesperson for CBP said they ‘would be in touch soon’ when asked for comment by NBC 6 South Florida on Camacho’s detainment.
The Daily Mail has reached out to CBP for additional information and an update on Camacho’s case.
The detention center, colloquially known as ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ opened in July, 2025.
President Donald Trump, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Todd Lyons were in attendance for the grand opening.
Trump said at the time that the detention center was expected to hold 3,000 migrants. The president promised the most ‘menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet,’ would be sent to Alligator Alcatraz.
The detention center, colloquially known as ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ opened in July, 2025
Camacho immigrated to the US from Venezuela on a visa in 2016. He’s married to an American citizen and has US-born children
The detention center is located in the middle of Florida’s Everglades. Republicans who supported the measure argued that the swamplands surrounding the detention site would deter detainees from escaping.
‘We’re surrounded by miles of treacherous swampland and the only way out is, really, deportation,’ Trump said during his inaugural tour of the facility.
Democrats have frequently criticized the conditions at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’. Two former detainees testified last month that they were subject to horrid conditions at the facility.
They testified that they were punished for seeking legal advice and were forced to use soap to write down attorneys’ phone numbers because they were not allowed to have pens and paper.
The two detainees testified virtually after they were deported to their home countries of Haiti and Colombia. They used initials to protect their identities.
Mark Saunders, an official overseeing attorney communications at Alligator Alcatraz, testified during the hearing that attorneys were meeting with detainees, and the center was mandating that legal representation could not be turned away.
