‘Alcatraz dos alligators’: the controversial center for immigrant detention in construction in Miami, USA

The construction of the new non -document immigrant detention center in Florida, which began in June, includes the readaptation of a training airport located in the Pantanosa Everglades region, about 70 km from the center of Miami. Brazilian imprisonment for immigration service generates revolt in the US walking through a marshy region with two armed police with Heavy Metal music in the background, Florida’s American Attorney General James Uthmeier, tells in the video published on his social networks that, in that swamp, a detention center will be built for undocumented immigrants. ✅ Click here to follow the G1 international news channel on WhatsApp Uthmeier explains that the state of Florida, politically controlled by the Republicans, supports the government of US President Donald Trump in his deportation policy and seeking new centers to house detained people. “I believe this is the best: I call him Alcatraz of alligators,” says the prosecutor. He refers to the Federal Prison of Maximum Security that worked in São Francisco Bay, California (USA), between 1934 and 1963. “It is not necessary to invest much in the perimeter,” Uthmeier continues. “If people leave, they will be received by snakes and alligators.” The construction works of the new detention center began this week. They include the readaptation of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, about 70 km from downtown Miami. The place is amid the Everglades, a subtropical swamp with great ecological importance. It houses the national park of the same name, declared by UNESCO as an international reserve of the Biosphere and Heritage of Humanity. The airport where the migratory detention center will be basically a landing track for pilot training, surrounded by a wide length of swamps and swamps. We traveled from Miami to the airport entrance, following the US-41 West Highway (also known as the Tamiami Way), with its surprising landscape. In a place full of mosquitoes, amid a suffocating summer heat, we managed to advance a few meters inside the enclosure, until, as we imagined, a guard blocked our access with a truck. Stopped at the entrance of the property, we observed a constant parade of trucks carrying canvas, building materials, portable bathrooms and other unidentified loads. The urgency to enable the detention center as soon as possible seemed evident. A rapid movement in the water of a small channel that runs right next to the entrance of the enclosure, followed by a sound from vegetation, made us wonder if they would be fish, vipers or any of the numerous alligators that roam the swamps and occasionally approach the road. Emergency Powers Aerial Image of Training and Transition Airport DADE-Collier, the place of construction of the so-called ‘Alcatraz of the Alligators’ Reproduction/X Although the property where the track is located belongs to Miami-Dade County, the decision to convert it into a detention center was taken by the Florida state authorities under an executive order issued in 2023 by Governor Ron Disantis, invoking emergency powers to contain for the flow of migrants without document. The new center, according to Uthmeier, will be able to house more than 1,000 people detained. He will go into operation in July and is quickly turning into one of the most controversial symbols of the Trump government migratory offensive. But he is not the only one. Dozens of other facilities are being prepared for the same purpose. After all, the government needs a prison infrastructure that allows you to house the detainees while seeking to accelerate the pace of deportations. From the moment an undocumented immigrant is arrested until you board the plane that will take you to another country, you can spend weeks or months. Several reports prepared by human rights protection organizations indicate that current detention centers are overcrowded. In many of them, detained people need to sleep on the floor. Data obtained by the CBS news network, a BBC partner in the United States, indicate that the American Immigration and Customs Service (ICE) maintains a record of 59,000 people detained across the country. This number represents more than 140% of its capacity. Read also video: Queen of the Netherlands ‘imitates’ Trump during Brazilian Meeting spends 16 days trapped in the US: ‘Discriminate those who do not speak English’ 10 years of gay marriage in the US: how the fight of a widower extended the right to union between same-sex people across the ‘cruel and absurd’ entry of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Everglades BBC News/Cecilia Barría Betty Osceola lives near the so -called “Alcatraz dos Alligates”. It is part of the Miccosukee indigenous community, which inhabits the region for several generations. On the weekend of June 21 and 22, she participated in a peaceful demonstration at the entrance of the airport against the new Detention Center. And in recent days, it has also witnessed the incessant traffic of trucks, which come in and out of the scene. Osceola does not believe that the detention center is a temporary solution, as the authorities argue. For her, in practice, her operation could extend for months or even years. “I have serious concerns about environmental damage,” she told BBC News Mundo, the BBC Spanish service. She talked to the report next to a channel where a small alligator swam. Osceola also cares about the conditions that detainees will face in the new facilities. Environmental organizations also expressed these same concerns, including friends of the Everglades, as well as organizations dedicated to the defense of human rights in the United States. The American Union for Civil Liberties (ACLU), based in Florida, qualified the initiative of “cruel and absurd.” She argues that there are no justifications to arrest people in isolated and dangerous places, much less in a center “designed to the image of one of the most poorly famous prisons in US history.” The detention centers themselves in populated regions, according to the organization, maintain well -documented antecedents of medical negligence, mistreatment and lack of legal access. “Build a [centro de detenção] In a remote and marshy place will only aggravate these conditions, “the organization highlights. BBC contacted Florida’s attorney general to talk about all these doubts, but did not respond until the publication of this report. The position of the prosecutor Uthmeier about the new Everglades facilities was clearly defined in the video published by his social networks. Low cost “to implement President Trump’s mass deportation agenda. Uthmeier states in the video that, with the” Alcatraz of alligators “, there will be” no place to go, nowhere where to hide “. The Kristi Noem cost, a secretary of internal security, during an operation against immigrants in New York X/@sec_No in the expansion, adaptation or construction of new detention centers is a stone in the government shoe. American to accelerate immigrant arrests. National Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in statements sent to BBC News Mundo that the state of Florida will receive federal funds to form the new detention center. Fulfilling the mandate of the American people to deport in mass delinquent immigrants. “We will expand the facilities and the space to sleep in a few days, thanks to our collaboration with Florida,” says the secretary. Noem explains that the “Alcatraz dos alligators” will be funded by the federal emergency control agency (FEMA). United States Department of National Security Department, in charge of coordinating the federal response to disasters. Empowering a detention center for more than 1,000 people requires a significant injection. Under its jurisdiction. The City Hall spokesman, Rachel Johnson, in a statement sent to the BBC, said it comprises “the Attorney General’s statement, that we have been received federal authorizations for the project, but we have not yet received a response from the state.” Like Los Angeles, California. But in Miami and southern Florida, the offensive seems to be a little smaller, although there is no detailed information about the number of people detained, where they are and which one have criminal records. Officers indicate that the new detention center should open the doors in the coming weeks. And everything seems to indicate that the project will follow at least that is observed at the entrance of the room, with its incessant flow of trucks, in the midst of an extremely hot swamp.

Source link