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On July 3, the state of Florida officially opened the so-called Alligator Alcatraz, an immigration detention center about 45 minutes west of Miami. Built in the Everglades swampland and managed by the state’s Division of Emergency Management, the makeshift facility is intended to hold as many as 4,000 immigrants and has been touted by the likes of President Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Those locked inside have claimed that they are being subjected to inhumane conditions, including toilets that overflow with fecal matter and food with worms in it. State officials have denied the allegations.
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“The reporting on the conditions in the facility is completely false. The facility meets all required standards and is in good working order,” Stephanie Hartman, a spokesperson for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, told the Associated Press.
After initially being denied entry, a group of lawmakers were given a tour of the facility on Saturday by state officials. Among them was Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.).
“This is a tent city in the middle of the Florida Everglades, in the hot blazing Florida summer in the middle of hurricane season,” Frost told me over the phone Thursday.
“This area is actually on an airstrip that was built decades ago for what was supposed to be the largest freight airport in the entire Southeast, and they abandoned the whole project because of the environmental concerns and because of how bad the flooding gets,” he added.
The airstrip in question was built in 1968 and was meant to be part of the Everglades Jetport, a planned travel hub that was supposed to be the largest airport in the world. The plan was scrapped after an environmental report was released the following year.
“Think about that,” said Frost. “They were building an airport and abandoned it because the area it’s in isn’t good for infrastructure. Now they’re wanting to essentially hold in internment of up to 4,000 immigrants and staff in tents, not in buildings.”
Frost said that he and a group of fellow members of Congress had originally planned to do an unannounced visit — ”You catch the facility off-guard, and you see what the conditions are usually like” — but Florida officials caught wind and extended an invitation to the lawmakers.
“We decided to take them up on it knowing that this would be a sanitized version of what’s actually going on,” Frost said. “But in my mind I thought, ‘A clean cage is still a cage and I still wanted to be able to go in there.’ ”
The representative said that they weren’t permitted to speak with detainees, and that they were only allowed to stand at the doorway of the tents. Each tent contained six cages, he said, with 32 people per cage. Units contained three toilet-sink devices.
“I’ve been in a jail cell before and I can tell you that you usually have two to four people per unit, not 32,” he said, adding that the temperature inside the tents was in the mid-80s.
“From a human point of view, it really hurt my heart to be there and see all these Latino men —Black and brown men in these cages chanting ‘Libertad!’ ” he recalled. “People [were] asking me to contact their families to tell them they’re OK.”
Beyond what he witnessed firsthand, Frost said that he’s heard from immigration advocates, lawyers and from detainees themselves who have expressed how difficult it has been for immigrants to speak to their legal counsel.
On Thursday, the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times jointly reported that a 15-year-old Mexican national with no criminal record had been sent to the detention camp. The teen, identified only as Alexis, appears to be among the first individuals sent to the facility. He is now in the custody of the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement and being held at a shelter for migrant children.
“These families are scared,” he said. “It’s their brothers and their fathers being scooped up. People are really scared for the safety of their loved ones. This is just being done so quickly and so incompetently,” said Frost.
“There’s real harmful mistakes being made and that whole place needs to be shut down immediately.”
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Bad Bunny kicks off Puerto Rico residency
(Lorenzo Lagares/For The Times)
Latin music superstar Bad Bunny kicked off his much anticipated 30-show residency at the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum — colloquially known as “El Choli” — in San Juan, Puerto Rico, last weekend, and De Los credentialed contributors Juan J. Arroyo and Lorenzo Lagares to review and photograph the show, respectively. Benito rallied locals — and LeBron James — with new songs from “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” his most recent LP that quickly became a strong contender for album of the year when it was released in early January.
“With his residency, Bad Bunny issues a rallying cry for Puerto Ricans: Act now. Change the future, so that you don’t regret the past,” writes Arroyo. “And most importantly, never stop playing your drums.”
You can find Arroyo’s review — and Lagares’s photographs — here.
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Belinda’s “Heterocomía” won’t generate much revenue — but the catharsis was worth it
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Owners of the historic downtown nightclub, which has appeared in such films as “The Bodyguard” and “Night at the Roxbury,” announced its final events will be in September.
Festival Chapín postponed due to concerns surrounding ICE raids
Now in its ninth year, the festival that stretches across eight blocks is a treasured community event for those of Guatemalan heritage and more in the Los Angeles area.
Immigration
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National Guard came to L.A. to fight unrest. Troops ended up fighting boredom
More than a month after President Trump deployed the U.S. military to Los Angeles amid immigration sweeps, the troops have largely disappeared from public view.
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There have been many legal challenges to President Trump’s California immigration sweeps, but one in particular could dramatically alter the policy.
Majority of people arrested in L.A. immigration raids had no criminal history
Federal agents continued to arrest mostly immigrants with no criminal convictions in sweeps that roiled Southern California over the last month, according to new data released Tuesday.
“I already want to cry.” Undocumented parents prepare for the unthinkable: Giving up their kids
Undocumented parents are preparing for the worst in response to the L.A. immigration raids. Bracing for potential deportation, they’re making emergency care plans for their kids.
Amid immigration raids, MLBPA advises players to keep legal documents with them
MLBPA chief Tony Clark, asked about the raids amid the context of a significant Latino player base, said the union has retained immigration lawyers.
Many Mexican immigrants swept up in L.A. raids are deeply rooted in U.S.
Almost half of Mexican immigrants detained in ICE raids in the L.A. area have been in the U.S. for more than a decade.
An immigration sweep on June 19, in which a woman had a heart attack, is one of many that have taken place in Southern California and encapsulates the chaotic methods employed to detain people over the last month.
