Bending the Arc

In June of this year, Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis took a decommissioned airport in the Everglades surrounded on all sides by the Big Cypress National Preserve, home and sacred refuge for the Miccosukee and Seminole Nations for centuries, and illegally built an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention camp they’ve called Alligator Alcatraz.

People are packed into cages with overflowing toilets and sewage spilled on the floor, malfunctioning air conditioning in sweltering heat, and food that reportedly contains maggots. Florida has already expanded their plan to include a new location in Northern Florida they’re calling Deportation Depot. The conditions at this facility are also intentionally inadequate.

From “traditional” ICE jails in Louisiana to these new concentration camps in Florida, human rights abuses appear to take place daily with no or extremely limited access to lawyers and constitutionally required due process. Its incarceration is intended to inflame racism and scare immigrants as well all those potentially targeted by racial profiling as ICE continues its raids.

All of this is on purpose, and with $10 billion in new funding provided by the recently passed budget bill, the goal is for Alligator Alcatraz and Deportation Depot to just be the beginning.

Now, according to Native Organizers Alliance Action Fund, some Nevada politicians are pushing for a new ICE concentration camp they want to call Coyote Compound. There’s still time to stop it from happening. 

Sign and send a direct message to Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo demanding he reject Coyote Compound or any other detention camp proposals. Our Christian values tell us this is no way to treat human beings or our environment.

Hawwih (thank you) for standing together and demanding justice today. 

GOOD NEWS UPDATE from Earth Justice, August 21: Judge Halts Operations at Everglades Detention Center with Preliminary Junction.