Alligator Alcatraz deports 100 people in less than a month

About 100 people have been deported from Alligator Alcatraz, the controversial migrant detention center hastily erected by the Florida government with tents and trailers in the vast Everglades swamps. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced last Friday that the first “two or three” flights to different countries had begun, without specifying which ones, and that he expected them to increase soon to continue deporting the hundreds of detainees currently at the center. Some of the people being held there told EL PAÍS that authorities are pressuring them, “almost forcing” them, to sign agreements to be deported, and that to access an immigration court they have to be transferred to Miami, which entails a wait of a month.

On Monday, in a hearing on a lawsuit alleging that detainees are being denied access to the judicial system and held without charges, a federal judge requested more information to “get to the bottom of” the legal agreements governing operations at the detention center. As the legal proceedings move forward, it remains unclear which local, state, or federal authorities are in charge of what, even though the facility has already received hundreds of people in less than a month of operation.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Americans for Immigration Court, point out that resolving these legal issues is an “emergency” because, according to statements made in the hearings, the immigration courts have no jurisdiction over what happens at the remote detention center. So now, in practice, the detainees are at the center of a legal limbo.

The center was built in just eight days on a former airstrip in the middle of a nature reserve in the sprawling wetlands west of Miami, seeking to please President Donald Trump, who gave his endorsement during a visit to the facility for its inauguration on July 2. The Florida state government began transferring detainees there almost immediately, without providing detailed and consistent information to Miami-Dade County, the official owner of the site, or to local lawmakers who requested access after complaints of poor conditions, poor hygiene, and mistreatment.

Attorneys for Florida argued that since the lawsuit in question was filed less than two weeks ago, the detainees have begun meeting with their lawyers in person and in videoconference rooms, according to the AP. The federal judge presiding over the case, Rodolfo A. Ruiz II, has asked the civil rights groups to consolidate their arguments and scheduled a new hearing for August 18.

Pressure to accept deportation under deplorable conditions

“The only option they’re offering is deportation. They don’t want to say anything, they don’t want to let anyone in. They won’t even make calls to lawyers,” says a Venezuelan man from Tampa detained at Alligator Alcatraz. He asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals and says his wife is a U.S. citizen. “The only thing they’re telling me is that I have no option, that the most likely solution is deportation. I don’t want to be deported; I’m here in the process of getting my papers sorted out and everything,” he added.

The man, who says he was detained for a traffic violation, claimed he has a lawyer, but they won’t let him begin the process until he’s supposedly transferred from the center to the central prison in Miami. “But then they say it’s a month [to wait]... When we go to the central prison in Miami, that’s when the detention begins. But this is a detention here, and we don’t have any process here,” he argued.

His family, lawyers, and everyone looking for him on the ICE database can’t find him in the system, he said. “They offer you voluntary deportation, when it’s a lie, when we have the right to fight a case and also to get out on bail. I have two children,” he says.

Two Mexican brothers detained at the center since the beginning of the month for a traffic incident in Orlando, Carlos Martín González, 26, and his brother Óscar Alejandro, 30, are now in Mexico, the Foreign Ministry reported Monday. Neither faces charges in their home country, according to the Foreign Ministry. Their families reported that the brothers had not had access to immigration lawyers, the consulate, or their own families, and that their constitutional rights were being violated.

Another Cuban inmate reports that the food consists of saltine crackers, sandwiches, and sometimes an apple, and that they are allowed to bathe every three or four days, for less than four minutes per person. Some new arrivals go several days without a toothbrush. On Sunday, since they barely have time to eat, the Cuban man says, an inmate “ate quickly and, as he left the dining room, collapsed.” The guards gave him CPR. “There are no firefighters in here or anything. The man’s eyes were white. They carried him outside and haven’t brought him back,” he says. If a person takes too long eating, they take their food and throw it away, he added. Dinner is at 6 p.m., and they don’t eat anything else until 7 a.m.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told EL PAÍS earlier this month that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) does not manage the Alligator Alcatraz facility, but rather the State of Florida, through its Division of Emergency Management. “Florida has National Guard officers operating under the 287(g) program and trained to perform detention functions,” it added in an email. Judge Ruiz said Monday that “this is part of the problem: who is doing what at this facility?” the AP reported.

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