By Thomas Thorspecken
On July 12 Democratic legislators and representatives had arranged to get a tour of the Alligator Alcatraz, a quickly assembled pop-up detention center with tents set up on an abandoned airstrip in the everglades. At least five members of Congress and roughly 20 state legislators toured the detention center.
A reporter held up a fist full of rusty nails and explained that the nails had been planted on the roadside to puncture the tires of news trucks and protestors vehicles as they pulled off the road to park. Thankfully, the Prius I had parked, did not get a flat.
When Stella P. Arbelaéz Tascóne and I arrived at the Alligator Alcatraz we noticed a news tent set up where legislators were taking to reported before they went into the detention facility. It was blazing hot but I sat to get the sketch.
The meeting broke up as I was sketching. The tent had been crowded full of reporters but they wandered off when the representatives left to go inside the dentition center for a tour. The sketch gives the impression I get any time I post a sketch and article. You might think you are addressing a crowd, but actually only a few ever seem to hear the commentary.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz explained that 32 detainees are packed into cages like sardines, inside the tents, with eight cages per tent. There are 900 detainees reported to be at the detention camp. inmates have to wear colored bracelets, Red, Yellow and Green, to mark where they stand in the deportation process. Red would be a high level offense, Green was a medium offense, and Yellow which was worn by most of the inmates was for minor civil offenses. Lawyers are finding it impossible to meet with detainees.
Schultz said conditions inside the internment camp were were appalling. The te,nts were hot muggy and mosquito infested. Carlos G. Smith complained that they were not allowed to talk to any of the detainees. Anna Eskamani explained that they were shown empty tents to give a sanitized and scripted impression of the facility. There were three toilets per cage. As she put it, “We have animals that are in better conditions.” She said the detention center was a $50 million dollar grift.
The airstrip had been shut down because it did not meet environmental standards. Huge trucks are rolling into the facility every day. A reported 11 acre area has been covered with cement. The site is not hurricane proof nor is it flood proof. Within a week of the sire opening video footage leaked onto the internet showing a floor at the site flooding. The Miami Herald reported that over 100 detainees do not have any criminal record.