Florida officials deny accusations of inhumane conditions at Alligator Alcatraz

Keep in mind a lot of these people being subjected to this mistreatment were picked up from their jobs where they’ve been working for years, decades even. Not violent criminals.

FreeinChrist said:

***First, do not call this prison anything but Alligator Alcatraz. Remember the flaming rule and this link.

https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/alligator-alcatraz-detainees-allege-inhumane-conditions-at-immigration-detention-center/https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/alligator-alcatraz-detainees-allege-inhumane-conditions-at-immigration-detention-center/

They deny inhuman conditions, but the stories coming out of it say different.

Cuban reggaeton artist Leamsy La Figura, arrested last week in Miami-Dade on assault charges, was transferred to South Florida's new immigration detention facility known as Alligator Alcatraz in the Everglades, the singer confirmed in a phone call.​

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He and other detainees claim they are enduring inhumane conditions at the site, including lack of access to water, inadequate food and denial of religious rights.​

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One inmate complained that his Bible was taken from him. What danger is there in having a Bible to read?.

"They're not respecting our human rights," one man said during the same call. "We're human beings; we're not dogs. We're like rats in an experiment."​

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"I don't know their motive for doing this, if it's a form of torture. A lot of us have our residency documents and we don't understand why we're here," he added.​

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A third detainee, who said he is Colombian, described deteriorating mental health and lack of access to necessary medical care.​

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"I'm on the edge of losing my mind. I've gone three days without taking my medicine," he said. "It's impossible to sleep with this white light that's on all day."​

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He also claimed his Bible was confiscated.​

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"They took the Bible I had and they said here there is no right to religion. And my Bible is the one thing that keeps my faith, and now I'm losing my faith," he said.​

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https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article310130645.html

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Giant bugs, heat and a hospital visit: Inside Alligator Alcatraz’s first days

The calls from Alligator Alcatraz’s first detainees brought distressing news: Toilets that didn’t flush. Temperatures that went from freezing to sweltering. A hospital visit. Giant bugs. And little or no access to showers or toothbrushes, much less confidential calls with attorneys.,,,,,,​

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“Why would we treat a human like that?” a woman whose Venezuelan husband is housed in Alligator Alcatraz told the Miami Herald. “They come here for a better life. I don’t understand. We are supposed to be the greatest nation under God, but we forget that we’re under God.” ....​

The women told the Herald that their husbands were unable to shower for several days after arriving. On Sunday, two women said their husbands complained that initially there was no water to flush toilets. All three detainees told their wives that the bugs were getting inside, one of them saying that grasshoppers the size of his hand were springing into the tent and that the biggest mosquitoes he had ever seen were flying over them in their cells.​

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Katie Blankenship, an attorney and co-founder of Sanctuary of the South, a legal services network, said Tuesday she has been unable to get in touch with a new client whose wife called last week, saying her husband was being transferred to Alligator Alcatraz from the Krome immigration detention center in Miami-Dade County.​

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Blankenship doesn’t have a number to call him at the facility. His name isn’t showing up in an online website kept by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.​

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She has asked ICE officials to confirm his whereabouts, but she said her emails have gone unanswered and the wife hasn’t heard from her husband since he was transferred. “I think it’s a gross, gross violation of due process to put people literally in this black hole where they cannot be found,” Blankenship said in an interview. “They cannot speak with counsel, they cannot contact immigration court. They are just for all intents and purposes, disappeared.”​

Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article310130645.html#storylink=cpy

Apparently cruelty is the point.

My father didn't fight on Omaha Beach on D-Day and go through the Battle of the Bulge so America can forget her Judeo-Christian values and the Constitution which bars cruel and unusual punishment.
My uncle, my Dad's brother, did not fight and get shot down in the Battle of Berlin so his country could be cruel.
Another uncle fought in the Pacific around Burma and Guadalcanal, and he didn't do that so America could copy the worst of mankind.

Many of these prisoners are accused, and not found guilty yet.

Perhaps our 34 time convicted felon - criminal convictions - should check that place out. ..

Click to expand...

Cruelty is not the point, it is the process by which the point is delivered. The point Steven Miller wants to make very clear is that you are not welcome here. It does not matter who you are or how hard you worked or if you followed the rules. You are not welcome here. Plain and simple.

FreeinChrist said:

I believe Native Americans felt that way for a long time.

Most folks in the US are the descendants of immigrants.

Click to expand...

I believe that the incumbent President’s mother was an immigrant.

FreeinChrist said:

Funny that the President was married to three different immigrants, and that his children have an immigrant mother, and his in-laws are immigrants - but they are okay. They are white.

Click to expand...

You sure? E.g., Marla Maples was born in GA

FreeinChrist said:

I partly disagree as I believe cruelty is the point but agree that Miller wants to make clear that certain folks are not wanted in the US. He is being as cruel as he can get away with to do it.

Funny that the President was married to three different immigrants, and that his children have an immigrant mother, and his in-laws are immigrants - but they are okay. They are white.

Click to expand...

I think the cruelty is a tool. I don't doubt that bothers few and delights some. I just don't think they are being cruel simply for cruelties sake but are using it in service of a broader objective. I think we are for the most part in agreement on our understanding of the administrations aims in this endeavor.

In an op-ed published by the New York Times on July 11, Esau McCaulley — a theology professor at Wheaton College in Illinois and author of the forthcoming children's book "God's Colorful Kingdom Storybook Bible" — examines the role Christianity plays in the anti-Trump resistance. And the op-ed's headline poses the question: "Is the Christian Resistance to Trump Growing?"

"For too long," McCaulley argues, "this administration has presented itself as the only defender of Christianity while it engages in merely symbolic gestures like posting Bible verses or publicizing worship services in the White House. Frederick Douglass described this type of performance: 'Religion simply as a form of worship, an empty ceremony, and not a vital principle, requiring active benevolence, justice, love and good will towards man.' I fail to see how you can shout glory to God one minute and laugh about the harsh conditions of Alligator Alcatraz the next."

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counterpoint (hat tip Michie)

Christians can 'love all people' and support 'Alligator Alcatraz,' Evangelical group says​

Sharayah Colter, chief communications officer at The Danbury Institute, a nonpartisan association of Evangelical churches based in Dallas, Texas, says while the controversy over the facility is likely to continue, Evangelicals and other Christians “should support earnest efforts to secure the nation and to uphold law and order.”

“People inside and outside of America are taught by the actions of the nation that our laws are impotent,” she added. “It is wrong to convey to people that it is OK to break the law since Scripture calls people to obey the laws of the land so far as they do not cause a person to break God’s law. When a nation passes laws, the righteous thing to do is to uphold and enforce those laws. To act otherwise is both wrong and cruel.”

[Not sure where the alligators come in. Probably through gaps under the fence, yuk yuk.]

Florida lawmakers allowed into ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ say detainees packed into cages​

Two days after filing a lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for being “unlawfully denied entry” to inspect conditions at the facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” members of Congress and state representatives were given a limited tour Saturday to inspect conditions after calling the lack of access a “deliberate obstruction meant to hide what’s really happening behind those gates,” according to a joint statement from lawmakers.

They said they heard detainees shouting for help and crying out “libertad”— Spanish for “freedom” — amid sweltering heat, bug infestations and meager meals.

“They are essentially packed into cages, wall-to-wall humans, 32 detainees per cage,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who represents Florida’s 25th Congressional District, said during a news conference following their tour.

Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, who was also on the tour, said the lawmakers were concerned about reports of unhygienic conditions due to toilets not working and “feces being spread everywhere,” but were denied access from viewing units where migrants are currently detained.

The wife of a 43-year-old Guatemalan man currently detained at “Alligator Alcatraz” told CNN her husband is enduring harsh conditions similar to those described by lawmakers who toured the facility. After more than two weeks in detention, she said, he has yet to see a lawyer.