Consul Warns Mexicans Must Take ‘Extreme Precautions’ in Florida

Citing legal conditions and questions in the “Alligator Alcatraz” installation of Governor Ron Desantis in the Everglades, a Mexican diplomat issued a striking warning to anyone from his country thinking of going to Florida.

“They should take precautions or not come to Florida,” the Mexico consul in Orlando told TPM. “You should take extreme precautions when you come to Florida.”

Speaking in Spanish during an interview on Tuesday evening, Sabines said that Mexicans visiting the state should take care of “basic things”, like making sure they praise cars in legitimate locations, leading with a license and carrying documentation at any time. Sabine’s concerns were based on a case in which he was involved where two brothers were brought to the detention camp. Mexican officials said the two brothers had valid documentation.

“They will hold you here for anything,” said Sabines.

Sabines cited the Desantis stages, a republican, took care of President Donald Trump’s mass expulsion program. He also argued that the situation in Florida, in particular, goes beyond everything that ordered by Trump.

“It is a state that is more likely than other states … including for people with visas,” he said.

The measures taken by Desantis include memorandums from the agreement that the governor ordered agencies to sign with the Ministry of Internal Security (DHS) and immigration and customs application (ICE) in February which tastes with Florida officials with the application of immigration. And, earlier this month, Desantis opened a migrant detention camp which he nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz”. This installation, which is located in the swamps of the Everglades, was built by the governor using his emergency powers. Florida covers the annual cost of $ 450 million, which, according to state officials, hope to have partially reimbursed by the federal government. TPM previously reported that the desantis office had diverted resources in the event of a disaster when the camp had been quickly opened. After having turned in the installation earlier this month, the Democrats made alarms on the difficult conditions there. The prisoners who were released also offered dark installation accounts.

Sabines said that the absence of “right to a fair trial” in the detention camp is one of the reasons why he is disrupted by the situation in Florida. More specifically, Sabines helped the father of the two brothers, Carlos Martín González, 26, and óscar Alejandro, 30, who have been detained in the camp since earlier this month. According to Sabines, Carlos was here with a valid tourist visa while óscar is married to an American citizen. He said Carlos was initially arrested by police for driving a car with tinted windows that were not recorded. Sabines said that the father of the brothers, Martín González, had paid a fine linked to the incident.

“Both do not want to stay in the United States, these men already want to go to Mexico, but they won’t leave them. And why? I don’t know,” said Sabines about the brothers, adding: “We don’t understand the reason why they are still in prison. … It’s not the right way to do things.”

The Desantis office did not respond to a request for comments.

The concerns about Mexican detainees in “Alligator Alcatraz” went beyond the case of the Gonzalez brothers. On Tuesday, Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum addressed a report by Human Rights Watch on “abusive practices” in migrant detention centers in Florida during her daily press conference. Sheinbaum said she believed that 14 Mexican citizens were detained in these detention centers. She also said that Mexican officials examine whether “human rights violations” had been committed in “Alligator Alcatraz” and said her government is considering filing complaints if it had proven.

“What we insist is that, when people are detained, they are immediately repatriated,” said Sheinbaum.

The Sheinbaum office did not respond to a request for TPM comments. The White House referred all the questions about the operation of “Alligator Alcatraz” to the Desantis office and to the Ministry of Internal Security, which did not respond to a request for comments. A White House spokesman did not answer questions about whether the president was in communication with Sheinbaum on the repatriation of Mexican prisoners.

The Mexican government has helped the Gonzalez family get an American lawyer, Andrea Reyes, who did not respond to a request for comments on this story. Although the family has legal and diplomatic support, Sabines said that the brothers did not have access to these resources because “the Alligator Alcatraz” is a “limbo” that exists between the state and the federal authority.

“As human beings, we all have, in most of the world where there is democracy, where there is freedom, you are entitled to a trial, to a judge, you have the right to a lawyer. Not in this case,” said Sabines. “There in” Alcatraz “, the two Mexicans I look at the case have a lawyer, but their lawyer does not have access to the file. They do not have access to the case, they do not have an extraterrestrial number, they do not have a case number.”

US lawyers have previously raised similar concerns that they are unable to follow and effectively represent detainees in “Alligator Alcatraz” due to the absence of a “foreign number”, which is generally issued to people in police custody. The Miami Herald spoke with lawyers who said they had trouble finding phone numbers and emails associated with the site.

“This does not exist. There is no immigration judge there. We have no one to stand before,” said Sabines, adding: “They are not entitled to a fair trial for the moment when a lawyer.”

Sabines also suggested that he understood the inability of Mexican diplomats to get in touch with the brothers to be a violation of international agreements.

“It never happened before.

Sabines stressed that, according to his experience, the situation was unprecedented.

“This is something that we have never seen, not in the United States and not in Mexico,” said Sabines. “I don’t know if there are other countries where something like it is, where there is another type of government that is not democratic, but here we have never seen that.”

According to Sabines, Mexican officials ask to be able to contact the brothers, so that they can meet their lawyer and to have access to their file.

“No one had access,” said Sabines. “The only thing they gave them the right is a daily call to their father.”

Based on these conversations, the father of the two men told the media in Spanish that the conditions of the establishment are “really bad”.

“His children told him that it is like a chicken coop … that the lights are always lit and that they do not know if it is day or night,” said Sabines.

Sabines said that the situation was particularly disturbing given the high number of legal Mexican workers in Florida and the vast commercial relationship of his country with the State.

“Mexico is a trading partner with Florida,” said Sabines, adding: “We buy a lot in Florida; Milk, cream, car parts, medicines. We are a good customer for Florida and they do not treat us as business partners or as a family. ”

For his part, Sabines said that the Mexican consular officials regularly met the predecessor of Desantis, now the United States senator, Rick Scott (R). However, he said the situation had changed after Desantis took office in 2019.

“We have tried to speak several times to the governor,” said Sabines. “Before, yes, we met Governor Scott several times, but with Governor Desantis, we could not do it.”

Throughout the conversation, Sabines stressed that he thought that the risk for immigrants and Mexicans in Florida is beyond anything else in the United States, he also stressed that Desantis discussed the plans of a second detention center near Jacksonville. Overall, Sabines said that Mexican officials were “very worried” about the situation.

“I am not complaining about the United States, I respect the initiatives of President Trump. He has the right to have made the decisions he has voted for him, right? I understand it,” said Sabines. “But here it was excessive. … This prison is something that we never expected.”