The Trump administration and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have created tent cages in the country’s darkest swamp for housing “detainees” (“
Lawmakers visit ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ after being blocked
”). Snakes, alligators and humidity are at home there, along with mosquitoes by the swarm. Gleefully, the president and governor cynically dub it “
Alligator Alcatraz
.”
In the last 10 years, Florida has been hit by 13 hurricanes, seven have been category three or higher. If a storm flings tents and trailer homes into the air, what chance will those have who are held prisoner?
These prisoners are not convicts but were found waiting for day-work in front of a Home Depot, or in a restaurant washing dishes or in a field pulling weeds. Nearly all have brown skin. Yet without even a court appearance, these men were snatched from the streets and “detained” because they may (or may not) have violated immigration rules.
They were grabbed by officers who failed to show faces or warrants, with no word to their families and no legal hearing to speak their side of the story. Disappeared into the swamp. If we fail to speak up, what has happened to them could happen to any of us.
Patrick Henry,
Euclid
