Advocates and detainees warn about conditions at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ : NPR
The demonstrators meet to demand the closure of the owling center for known immigrants under the name of “Alligator Alcatraz” at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Florida, July 22. Immigrants held in American detention centers underwent abusive and degraded treatment, a human rights surveillance report on July 21 said.
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Their nightmare started with a fishing trip on weekends.
It is according to Mr., who is from Guatemala and asked to be called only by his initial.
She and her husband live in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
At the beginning of July, they went to the swamps in the Everything with their baby, to fish for perch.
M. took a break to breastfeed in their car, when her husband was approached by a fish and fauna officer, asking for their fishing permit. He had one, but none of them could show a driving license: they are both in the United States without legal status. M. has been here for 10 years. Her husband is from El Salvador and has been here for 20 years.
Unable to show a driving license, the couple was arrested and taken to a local prison where they were separated. Mr. said that it was the last time that she saw her husband, before joining the hundreds of detainees at the controversial fortune detention center, which was nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz”. She told NPR their history under the guise of anonymity for the whole family because she fears the reprisals of immigration officials.
At local prison, Mr. said that she started panicking. She is diabetic, she would breastfeed the baby and did not have enough water to drink. She says she felt weak and could not calm her baby. As she tells it, it was then that she heard hitting on the wall.
“I said to the baby:” It’s your father! “” She says sobbing.
She says they continued to hit the wall back and forth for the next eight hours.
Mr. and the child were released later in the evening. She had to wear an ankle instructor and ordered to leave the country within three months.
No one would tell her where her husband was taken. During the next three days, she said that she called immigration officials and traveled the federal immigration detention website. But M. could not find it.
RENO MOURER (on the left) and Dianna MOURER take photos at the entrance to “Alligator Alcatraz” at the Dade-Collier training and transition airport, in Ochopee, Florida, July 12. The members of the Congress received their first visit to the new immigration installation managed by the State “.
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Trump: “We will teach them to flee an alligator”
In the news, there were stories on a new detention center in the Everglades, in the swamp in the center of the state. Installation, near a rarely used aerodrome, has cage tents and cells for up to 5,000 migrant prisoners. It was constructed in haste by Florida’s state to hold what interior security Kristi Noem called “the worst scumbags”. Florida and federal officials quickly nicknamed the establishment “Alligator Alcatraz” because it is surrounded by thousands of square miles of swamps and alligators. DHS projects the installation will cost around $ 450 million to operate during its first year,
“We will teach them to flee an alligator,” joked President Trump on the day of his visit to the establishment. “Do not run in a straight line.”
Since its opening, the installation has been a magnet for prosecution, filed by human rights groups and even environmental lawyers. It is unique in that it is entirely managed by the state of Florida.
“This installation will house some of the most threatening migrants,” said Trump after visiting his land. “Some of the most vicious people on the planet.”
But so far, the figures have not supported the president’s assertion. According to recent DHS statistics, 71% of people in immigration detention were not sentenced to criminal. A Miami Herald The investigation revealed that a third of immigrants detained at “Alligator Alcatraz” have no criminal conviction. Among those who are condemned, crimes ranges from offenses to traffic at the start of the illegal school year and to the attempted murder.
(Mr. Mr.’s husband was accused of cocaine possession 20 years ago. He pleaded not guilty and the accusation was abandoned. He also argued any competition to drive without a license, a crime. Nowadays, the couple has a landscaping company. They are active in their local evangelical church.)
Marina Paz prays near the entrance to “Alligator Alcatraz” at the Dade-Collier training and transitional airport in Ochopee, Florida, July 12. Paz prayed for those who were held in the establishment.
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“What are we, in Russia? What is it?”
As soon as she was released, Mr. contacted an immigration lawyer in Florida, Jeff Botelho. “She was desperate,” said Botelho. Although he does not currently represent M.’s husband, at the time, he agreed to help try to locate it.
Botelho immediately met what many immigration lawyers have since confirmed: it is incredibly difficult to contact customers detained at the “Alligator Alcatraz” or to obtain information on people inside.
After a series of attempts, Botelho finally called the Florida prosecutor’s office. He said that the receptionist froze for a moment, before telling him that she had no number for Alligator Alcatraz.
“I couldn’t believe it,” says Botelho. “I said to myself:” What are we, in Russia? What is this? You do not have a number for an establishment in which the government of the state of Florida is housing immigrants? “”
Defenders say that installation is a health disaster that awaits to occur.
NPR has contacted Florida general prosecutor several times and the emergency management division in Florida and has received no response. The Ministry of Internal Security told NPR that the inhuman treatment allegations were false. “This is another attempt to dirty the Ice law enforcement,” said DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin in NPR in a statement.
After four days, nothing heard, Mr. Take a phone call at 3 am, she was her husband. He was actually held in the installation of the Everglades.
“He said that it was horrible,” said Mr. “They are locked in a place where electricity goes out, just like air conditioning. The heat becomes suffocating. There is not enough water so that they can only shower once a week.”
Family members have shared accounts of their detainees, vermin infestation, extreme heat, non -edible foods.
Health professionals say that the presence of mosquitoes is a health risk. Dr. Armen Henderson, of the non -profit response from Dade County, called this a disaster that awaits to happen.
“This is a violation of human rights. It is morally false,” said Henderson. “As a health professional, I’m worried. Zika, Dengue, Chikungunya, Western Nile Virus, these mosquitoes are death sorrows for people with chronic disease.”
The Republican management says that the installation is “above the federal standard”
The Trump administration vehemently disputes accusations that the detention center is inhuman. At a press conference earlier this week, Trump’s Tsar Frontier Tom Homan described these claims as “bullshit”.
“I was there,” said Homan. “I have traveled the facilities of the prisoners. I crossed the medical facilities, I crossed the cafeteria. I made them show, what did you feed these people today? I saw the lunch that they fed them. They ate better yesterday that I ate today.”
Republican representative Adam Botana, who represents Florida southwest, told NPR that he had done a tour too recently at the detention center. “The installation is very common,” he said. “Looked good. It was clean. It was cool. Everything is federal standards. Above federal standards.”
Botana says he has compassion for some of these prisoners. “It’s sad. A lot of people there, and I’m sure there have been there who have been there for a long time.” But law is the law, he says, and offenders must be punished. “We have to close the borders. We have to expel illegal immigrants,” said Botana. “We are here in the state by simply trying to apply the mandate to which Trump was elected.”
It has been more than a month since Mr.’s husband was detained. In recent days, it has been transferred to another Florida installation. Mr. now takes medication for panic attacks. She says that as soon as he is expelled to his native Salvador, which is very likely, she and the baby will follow.
This week, the interior security secretary Kristi Noem announced that a new immigration installation of 1,000 beds in Indiana built in collaboration with the State. She nicknamed it “The Speedway Slammer” after the famous Indianapolis racecourse.
In fact, the Trump administration is in talks with several other states to create similar detention centers because it widens the national detention capacity.
Alligator Alcatraz, known as the administration, is not going. If anything, it’s a plan.
If you have immigration advice, you can contact our cutting edge line, on WhatsApp and Signal: 202-713-6697 or Jasmine Garsd journalist: jgarsd@npr.org
