Few readers would disagree with the latter half of Father Michael Orsi’s September 28 Perspective column regarding his visit to Alligator Alcatraz. Citing the religious principles upon which America is founded, he emphasizes the need for both compassion and pragmatism in resolving the nation’s immigration policy and makes a plea for political compromise tempered by a sense of mercy.
But while acknowledging that the facility itself is a symbol of “our political and philosophical differences on immigration policy,” he gives it a clean bill of health when it comes to how detainees are treated. He writes that “The controversy over Alligator Alcatraz’s operational defects is, for the most part, unjustified. The argument really is for or against its existence.”
While Father Orsi is a man of faith, it is difficult to accept his evaluation on faith alone. Republican Congressman Mario Diaz Balart arranged his visit, and his host was the facility administrator. He does not specify the date of his visit, the amount of time spent on his tour, or the extent of his access to detainees with whom he spoke. He offers no insight regarding the number of inmates currently on site, or how many are assigned to the camp’s low, medium, and high-risk classifications.
Since a carefully choreographed tour in July, prior to inmate arrivals, no media organizations have been given access to the center. In its first month, Democratic party representatives who toured the facility were critical of conditions to which they maintained 900 inmates were subjected. Congressman Maxwell Frost of Orlando was the last of his party to tour the facility on August 20. There were only 336 detainees on site during his visit, but he found the conditions “still horrible.”
For its part, the Department of Homeland Security issued an August 14 press release that stated “Alligator Alcatraz does meet federal detention standards. All detainee facilities are clean. Any allegations of inhumane conditions are FALSE.”
Father Orsi found “no evidence anyone is being denied legal or religious counsel.” That judgment is at odds with that of detainee legal advocates − like Miami attorney Hector Diaz who has struggled to represent ten clients at the facility − and with the position of the American Civil Liberties Union.
On August 22, the ACLU filed a complaint claiming detainees confront unprecedented challenges compared with regular immigrant detention and removal protocols: they have been denied habeas corpus, held for weeks without charge, and have not been formally arraigned. They do not appear in the ICE detainee locator system, meaning attorneys and family members do not know where they are or how to contact them. The suit claims detainees have been transferred out of the facility a day, or before the day of a scheduled meeting with their attorneys.
On September 28, in response to this and other legal challenges, the state released a 36-page Detainee Handbook produced by Immigration Enforcement, dated August 20. In addition to detailing detainee privileges and a strict series of rules for both detainee and staff conduct, it cites inmate rights to confidential contact and on-site meetings with lawyers. Hector Diaz believes these procedures would represent a step in the right direction, but cautions “There’s no transparency, so we don’t know if they’re being followed or not.”
Father Orsi confesses that tears came to his eyes when he saw “so many human beings in cages.” Yet he believes men who are confined to cramped cages in the facility can still be treated humanely. He believes we might argue “for or against its existence” but appears willing to pre-emptively absolve the authorities of any civil or human rights violations before the debate gets underway.
Other Catholic leaders in Florida have offered a different point of view. Bishop Frank Dewane of the Diocese of Venice has been critical of the facility and stressed “the need for just immigration enforcement and the government’s obligation to carry it out must be undertaken in a way that is targeted, humane, and proportional.” Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski has said, “It is alarming to see enforcement tactics that treat all irregular immigrants as dangerous criminals,” and, “It is unbecoming of public officials and corrosive of the common good to speak of the deterrence value of ‘alligators and pythons’ at the Collier-Dade facility.”
The issue of conditions at Alligator Alcatraz may soon be moot. In an injunction issued on environmental grounds, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams ruled on August 22 the facility must be shut down within 60 days. While the DeSantis administration subsequently won a petition granting a stay of the ruling, the Florida Division of Emergency Management had already begun transferring detainees to other undisclosed facilities.
While it may have housed 900 at its mid-July peak, the number may have dropped to 300 by the end of August, and it appears the center is being wound down. Putting the politics and human rights issues aside, someone in Tallahassee seems to realize the expense and logistical challenge of operating a detention facility in the Big Cypress Preserve made no sense in the first place. Judge Williams may have done the FDEM a favor.
The controversy over the detention center may soon be pushed to the back pages. But at some future date, thoughtful advocates of strict immigration enforcement may look back and ask whether a facility designed like Alligator Alcatraz could ever have claimed to house detainees in an acceptable manner. Whether, in other words, the operation of such a facility could ever be considered “targeted, humane and proportional” – as Father Orsi contends.
Paul Atkinson, a Bonita Springs resident, is a contributor to The Hill and the New York Sun.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Alligator Alcatraz: Is it targeted, humane, and proportional? | Opinion
Reporting by Paul Atkinson / Fort Myers News-Press
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