Read our editorial on mass deportations here, and the ongoing struggle against it here.
At least a dozen detainees at the “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention facility have been on a hunger strike for at least two weeks in protest of deplorable conditions at the concentration camp. Conditions at the facility include allegations of medical neglect, abuse and mistreatment by guards, lack of food, and unsanitary conditions. Detainees have also reported being denied contact with lawyers and family members, further violating due process and their democratic rights.
Alligator Alcatraz was hastily constructed on a former airstrip, with total disregard of the environment and its location on land the Miccosukee Tribe considers sacred. It has an estimated 1,000 beds stacked together in cages, built under tents surrounded by wire fences and trailers.
So far this year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has confirmed 10 deaths in custody nationwide, attributable to an increase in aggressive detention policies. In Florida alone, which has been a focal point of these policies, 10,000 arrests have been made this year, with 72% of detainees having no criminal history. At least 100 people have been deported from the facility.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a key Trump ally, championed the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant offensive. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier callously remarked on the facility’s hostile environment, stating that “if someone escapes, there’s not much waiting for them except alligators and pythons.” Such scare tactics ignores the very real dangers detainees face—extreme heat, disease-carrying mosquitoes, flooding, hurricanes, and the risk of contaminating the already-fragile Everglades.
Pedro Lorenzo Concepcion, a migrant from Cuba, reportedly started the hunger strike and stopped eating more than two weeks ago, with others soon joining. Lorenzo Concepcion came to the US from Cuba nearly 20 years ago and was detained early in July after showing up at an ICE appointment. He was hospitalized during the strike, saying, “I don’t want food, I refuse any treatment. I didn’t even ask to be taken to the hospital… I belong where my people are, in prison, suffering the same hardships.”
Despite mounting evidence, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rejected reports of a hunger strike, calling the reports “FAKE NEWS”, and instead defended ICE officers amid what they called an “830% increase in assaults” on ICE officers.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has defended “Alligator Alcatraz” and promoted the facility as a potential model to implement in other states to increase ICE detention capacity nationwide. Florida officials have already backtracked on earlier assurances, including that minors are not being held at the facility. In July, a 15-year-old was detained there, raising further concerns about the facility’s operations and the terror tactics used by immigration enforcement.
Photo: Trump tours “Alligator Alcatraz”. The White House.
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