After last month’s release of a new report from Amnesty International documenting cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment at two immigration detention centers in Florida, the organization continues to spread awareness and demand the closure of “Alligator Alcatraz” on billboards throughout Florida.
The billboards, prominently displayed in three locations near the governor’s mansion in Tallahassee and a few more locations in Miami and Palm Beach, call attention to the cruelty and abuses people detained in “Alligator Alcatraz” are experiencing and provide a way for viewers to take action demanding its closure.
The despicable conditions at “Alligator Alcatraz” reflect a pattern of deliberate neglect designed to dehumanize and punish those detained there. Tax dollars should be spent to support safe and healthy communities, not on punishing people seeking to build a new life in the U.S.
Amnesty’s research finds cruel detention conditions
The research from Amnesty International documents that people arbitrarily detained in “Alligator Alcatraz” are living in inhuman and unsanitary conditions, including overflowing toilets with fecal matter seeping into sleeping areas, limited access to showers, exposure to insects without protective measures, lights on 24 hours a day, poor quality food and water, and lack of privacy—including cameras above the toilets.
People interviewed shared that access to medical care is inconsistent, inadequate, or denied altogether, placing individuals at serious risk of physical and mental harm. People reported always being shackled when they were outside their cages. Other detainees have endured what amounts to torture, including being put in the “box,” described as a 2×2 foot cage-like structure used as punishment—sometimes for hours at a time, exposed to the elements with hardly any water, with their hands and feet attached to restraints on the ground.
The conditions in “Alligator Alcatraz,” Krome, and other detention centers are just one part of President Trump’s cruel detention and deportation machine. Florida has also passed extreme and discriminatory immigration laws that are putting immigrant communities at grave risk. The expansion of 287(g) agreements that deputize local law enforcement to act as immigration officials and detain people for immigration purposes has led to wrongful arrests, racial profiling, and widespread fear that prevents community members from accessing schools, hospitals, and other essential services.
Florida as Trump’s mass detention experiment
Florida has become a testing ground for abusive immigration enforcement policies, closely aligned with the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant and racist agenda. Under Governor Ron DeSantis, the state has intensified the criminalization of migration and relied on sweeping emergency powers to rapidly scale up mass detention.
In addition to its research and advocacy, Amnesty International is spreading awareness through these billboards and calling on both the government of Florida and the U.S. government to address systemic human rights violations within immigration detention facilities.
We hope Floridians see our billboards and agree: We must end the cruelty and human rights abuses.
Shut down “Alligator Alcatraz” and every cruel immigrant detention center.