In response to news reports that the detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz” may be closing, Amy Fischer, Director for Refugee and Migrant Rights with Amnesty International USA said:
“Alligator Alcatraz is a cruel and failed experiment. Authorities should close this despicable immigrant detention center immediately. It should never have been opened in the first place.
“The inhumane and degrading conditions at Alligator Alcatraz are not only morally wrong but also illegal, and in some cases amount to torture. People who are detained there have been denied necessary medical care and subjected to unsanitary conditions, including being forced to sleep next to overflowing toilets and eat food that is sometimes maggot infested. Other treatment documented is torture, including being put in the “box,” described as a 2×2 foot cage-like structure. Some people have been disappeared into Alligator Alcatraz, without their loved ones or legal teams able to locate their whereabouts.
“Of course, with Alligator Alcatraz, cruelty is the point. The detention center has been part of a deliberate effort to dehumanize and punish immigrants and create fear throughout communities. The partnership between Florida and the federal government to jail immigrants is a failed experiment — other states considering working with the Trump administration on immigrant detention centers should take note and not make the same mistake.
“The bottom line is that the government should not treat people this way, at any cost or under any circumstances. Tax dollars, whether federal or state, must not go towards such cruelty and human rights abuses.
“Immigration enforcement cannot exempt itself from human rights standards. While closing this facility would be important progress, authorities must ensure that all of the people inside are released so they can be reunited with their families, communities, and jobs. More than 60,000 actions have been taken by Amnesty International supporters asking authorities to close this facility.
“More broadly, the U.S. government must move away from cruel mass immigration detention and toward humane, rights-respecting migration policies. Congress must take heed and understand that taxpayers don’t want their tax dollars spent to target, torture, and enact cruelty against immigrants in Florida or elsewhere. And, in D.C., lawmakers must halt plans to give an additional $70 billion to ICE and CBP and instead invest in communities and stop the cruel mass immigration deportation machine, the violence at the hands of ICE and border patrol on our streets and the criminalization of migration.”
Contact: [email protected]