Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is moving quickly on this. She is calling for the immediate repatriation of these at least 30 Mexican citizens currently being held on Alligator Alcatraz, a notorious immigration detention center located some 40 miles from downtown Miami, Florida. Its conditions, described as inhumane even by ICE’s own standards, have attracted widespread condemnation from NGOs and human rights activists.
Alligator Alcatraz, as it’s affectionately known, stretches over 39 acres and sits submerged in a swamp teeming with alligators, crocodiles, and Burmese pythons. As one example, reports have surfaced about ICE’s use of overcrowded pods to hold detainees, resulting in dangerous and squalid living conditions. All of them have experienced sewage backups, some of which have led to flooded cages full of feces. In addition to physical abuse, some detainees have been denied simple, necessary medical treatment, compounding their suffering.
The facility’s air conditioning can even drop to a frigid 60 degrees Fahrenheit. This extreme cold only increases the distress experienced by those sheltering indoors. Sheinbaum expressed her outrage over these conditions, stating, “The treatment of our fellow citizens there, particularly with these raids, is deeply painful.”
Recently, Mexican Consul in Miami, Rutilio Escandón, made a groundbreaking visit to Alligator Alcatraz, becoming the first overseas consul to do so. After his visit, he released alarming testimony about the situation, including just one bath a week for detainees. “One of the complaints is that they bathe every three days, that they’re allowed to bathe every three days,” Escandón noted.
In another monumental case, a pair of young siblings were returned to Mexico. They like me had been held at this peculiar, quasi-jail called Alligator Alcatraz but facing no real charge. Because one of the brothers was visiting the U.S. on a tourist visa when he was detained, his case is particularly poignant. Roberto Velasco Álvarez, the chief of the North American unit in the Mexican foreign ministry, tweeted his pleasure that the brothers had returned.
Sheinbaum raised a symbolic photo recently taken on the U.S.-Mexico border Considerations Sheinbaum noted that Mexicans should not be kept in such facilities. They do not feel the need to come into these detention facilities. She said to me, they need to come back to our country right now. Detaining them in this way is not permissible, even under the overarching framework of the United States’ own laws.
The circumstances surrounding Alligator Alcatraz are prompting even more troubling questions. It pushes back against the oppressive way we go about detaining people and setting our immigration enforcement priorities. Advocacy groups are still working to effect systemic reform and ensure basic humanitarian standards are implemented in every detention center nationwide.