Human rights advocates and religious leaders will gather for a vigil late Sunday outside the Alligator Alcatraz detention camp, demanding the facility be shut down and calling for an end to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sweeps. A top Amnesty International USA will join the protest.
The protest, now in its eighth week, comes amid new reports of alleged medical neglect, violations of attorney-client privilege, and a large number of detainees who have all but disappeared from official federal records.
There still are no protocols for attorneys to get in touch with clients at the immigration detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” and detainees are often transferred just before scheduled lawyer visits, ACLU attorneys for detainees write in the latest court papers alleging continued unconstitutional obstacles for meeting with legal representatives.
READ MORE: ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ detainees continue to face obstacles to meet with lawyers, court papers allege
The Naples Daily News reported on the release of 9-1-1 call records from June to August, which included "desperate calls concerning a heart attack, a suspected stroke, and the alleged refusals of medical care for detainees."
The Miami Herald reported last week that the whereabouts of 800 of the 1,800 men detained at the facility in July could not be determined. The newspaper reported that some of the individuals who "showed no record in ICE’s database" were deported, even if they had a legal right to remain in the country.
Amy Fischer, who is Director of Refugee and Migrant Rights at Amnesty International USA, called Alligator Alcatraz “a human rights disaster."
"Amnesty International has heard horrific reports that people who have been caged in Alligator Alcatraz have gone through hell,” said Fischer, who will be joining the activists for Sunday’s vigil.
“These conditions are not isolated failures — they are part and parcel of the system designed for cruelty and meant to dehumanize our immigrant friends and neighbors,” she said.
“We are joining Florida communities to show that Amnesty International and our members and activists across the world have a clear and united call for President Trump and Governor DeSantis: Alligator Alcatraz must be shut down," she added.
The Rev. Kim Robles of Pinecrest Presbyterian Church, who leads the vigil, describes the situation at the immigration detention center as "inhumane and inexcusable."
"People who are being detained and their families and attorneys are children of God, like every one of us, and must receive the medical care they need,” Robles said. “The government must not leave them in anguish and without aid."
Noelle Damico, Director of Social Justice at the Workers Circle, which has been organizing the weekly vigils, referred to the facility as a "US blacksite" where "people are being disappeared." “We must shut Alligator Alcatraz down and stop the replication of this model immediately,” Damico said.
This month, a federal appellate court panel, in a separate environmental lawsuit, allowed operations to continue at Alligator Alcatrzaz by putting on hold a lower court’s preliminary injunction ordering the facility to wind down by the end of October.
A third federal lawsuit challenging practices at the facility claims immigration is a federal issue and Florida agencies and the private contractors hired by the state have no authority to operate the facility.
DeSantis’ administration in late June raced to build the facility on an isolated airstrip surrounded by wetlands to aid Trump’s efforts to deport people living in the U.S. illegally. Trump toured the facility in July and suggested it could be a model for future lockups around the nation as his administration pushes to expand the infrastructure needed to increase deportations.
The religious leaders and other activists said their weekly vigils will continue as long as people are being detained at the facility under these conditions.
Sunday’s vigil will be held across from entrance to Alligator Alcatraz on Route 41, 54585 Tamiami Trail East, Ochopee, FL 34141.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
