News In Brief

Top immigration attorney says purpose of 'Alligator Alatraz' is to 'dehumanize immigrants'

WLRN Public Media

Published July 1, 2025 at 10:59 PM EDT

Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz,” built as an immigration detention center in the Everglades to house thousands of people, is part of President Donald Trump’s goal to “dehumanize” immigrants, said Ira Kurzban, who is based in Miami and recognized as one of the nation’s top immigration attorneys.

“It's an effort to dehumanize people, period, because a lot of these people aren't undocumented,” Kurzban told the PBS NewsHour on Tuesday, the same day Trump and administration officials toured the facility.

“The American people are entitled to know that all of these communities, and particularly in my experience in the Haitian community, are peace-loving, pro-American tax paying residents who contribute every day to a better America," said immigration lawyer Ira Kurzban. "Do we really want to strip them of their legal status just to satisfy Republican cravings for more and more detention of our hardworking neighbors?”

Kurzban said the administration’s decision last week to end Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for 500,000 Haitians is part of its strategy to boot out legal U.S. residents by suddenly changing them to “illegal status.”

“What they want to do is ramp up civil detention of people,” said Kurzban, the former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, noting that it’s a civil offense to be in the U.S. illegally.

Gov. Ron DeSantis argues the facility is a necessity to address what he calls the “emergency” of illegal immigration in Florida.