The memeification of cruelty

Last week, Florida officials opened a hastily-built immigration detention center in the state’s Everglades. The facility has quickly become an avatar for the Trump administration's ruthless immigration policies, with Republicans dubbing it "Alligator Alcatraz." The "joke" is that the human beings held there might get eaten by alligators.

Only one week after the first group of detainees arrived, people are reporting inhumane conditions inside the facility.

Detainees have reported a lack of running water, scarce food, and giant bugs. A Cuban artist who goes by Leamsy La Figura told CBS Miami in an interview that he did not take a bath for four days due to a lack of water. La Figura also said that “they only brought a meal once a day and it had maggots.” According to La Figura, mosquitoes at the facility were “as big as elephants” and the lights stayed on at all times.

One detainee said he had not taken his medication for three days. Another told CBS Miami that facility staff were “not respecting our human rights” and that detainees were treated like “rats in an experiment.” That detainee said many people held at the facility have residency documents and do not “understand why we’re here.”

Family members of the detainees told the Miami Herald that at one point the toilets in the facility did not flush due to a water issue. One detainee told his wife that one night it was too cold inside the tent to sleep, but the next day the air conditioning seemed to stop working and it became extremely hot.

Immigration attorneys have said that they are not allowed inside the facility to meet with their clients or able to have confidential phone calls with them.

As a result of the Trump administration’s plan to dramatically increase deportations, many immigrants who are being arrested and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) do not have any criminal record. A CBS analysis through June 23 found that “nearly half” of the people being held in ICE detention did not have a criminal record. (La Figura, however, was “charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and battery.”)

The Florida detention center, which will cost an estimated $450 million annually to operate, was converted from a rarely-used airport in only eight days. The facility consists of cells enclosed with chain-link fences with large tents over them.

In addition to the inhumane conditions inside the facility, experts have warned that the facility may not withstand severe storms or a hurricane, both of which are common in the area. While Florida officials say the structure is “rated for winds of 110 miles an hour,” or a Category 2 hurricane, an expert told the Washington Post that the 110-mile-an-hour standard was outdated and not acceptable. Last week, before the facility was opened, there were reports of flooding after a heavy storm.

State and federal officials both denied the reports of inhumane conditions at the Everglades detention center. But President Trump praised the poor conditions before the facility was opened.

After visiting the detention center, Trump celebrated the facility. “I looked outside and that’s not a place I want to go hiking anytime soon,” he said. “We’re surrounded by miles of treacherous swampland and the only way out is really deportation.” Trump said he wanted to replicate the facility across the country, stating, “We’d like to see them in many states.”

Before his visit, Trump also joked about detainees being eaten by alligators if they tried to escape the facility. “We’re gonna teach them how to run away from an alligator, OK? If they escape prison, how to run away. Don’t run in a straight line, run like this,” Trump said while making a zigzag with his hand.

The Florida Republican Party is profiting off the facility, selling merchandise branded with the words “Alligator Alcatraz.” The merchandise includes $27 hats and $30 t-shirts that feature a fake image of a detention center with alligators and snakes in front of it.

The consequences of severe overcrowding

While the conditions at Florida’s Everglades ICE detention center are dire, they are not unique to the new facility. Instead, the inhumane conditions detainees are facing in Florida have been on the rise all over the country as the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has overwhelmed detention centers.

As of June 23, ICE had a record 59,000 people in custody, far out-pacing its 41,500-person capacity and beating the previous record of 55,000 detainees reached in 2019 by the first Trump administration.

In Los Angeles and New York, detainees have been held in small rooms meant for processing with several other people for hours and even days at a time. At one Massachusetts facility, dozens of detainees were forced to share one toilet with no privacy, go without bathing, and sleep side by side on a concrete floor with only aluminum blankets.

At a facility in Newark, New Jersey, inmates have been denied food for extended periods, served insufficient meals, and given undrinkable water. In June, these conditions led to a fight between detainees and staff during which four people escaped the facility. According to Newark’s mayor, the detainees escaped by kicking through a poorly built interior wall for which the private company running the facility never had permits or inspections.

In April, the California Department of Justice released a report detailing conditions at the state’s federal immigration detention centers. The report found that every detention center had “deficiencies in suicide prevention and intervention strategies” and that detainees with mental health conditions were at high risk due to under-staffing, incomplete mental health screenings, and the use of solitary confinement.

While lawmakers in some states, like California and New Jersey, are attempting to expose the conditions in ICE detention facilities, the Trump administration has gotten rid of the federal government’s immigration watch dogs. In March, the Department of Homeland Security effectively eliminated its Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, and Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman. In part, these offices were responsible for investigating complaints about immigration detention facilities and reporting on conditions to Congress.

Without federal watchdogs and with the Trump administration promising to ramp up arrests of undocumented immigrants even further, what is already on track to be the deadliest year for people in ICE custody is likely to get worse.