Built in a mere 8 days, the newly constructed undocumented immigrant detainment facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz” has become the new home of over 3,000 men, women, and for a short time, even a child.
Easily able to be inferred, the conditions of this facility correctly match the time it took to erect it. First hand accounts view “cages” housing up to 32 people per cell. Inside this facility, immigrants are permitted to shower every three or four days, swarmed with mosquitoes, given one meal a day, and subjected to overall inhumane, animal-like conditions. This construction follows a 608 million dollar grant program via FEMA, the Federal Emergency. Management Agency, encouraging states to model after Florida’s very own detainment center, citing it as a strong blueprint for future facilities.
Programs such as this seemingly represent Trump’s desire to “defend the safety and security of our country; and protect American workers and taxpayers” despite detaining and deporting innocent people, many workers, and taxpayers who contribute almost 97 billion dollars in federal, state, and local taxes while millionaires and billionaires collectively evade over 150 billion dollars in taxes every year.
These desires have been met with intense backlash, from not only opposing sides but within his own party. Take State Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh for example. This Redlands Republican is pleading to President Trump and his team to grant migrant workers expedited work permits in order to allow them to stay in America without fear of deportation, reasoning coming from their heavy contribution to the work force, going as far as to make up 36% of blue collar jobs.
To add flame to fire, ICE statistics tell us that 71.7% of detainees show no sort of criminal record, contrary to many claims of trying to “protect American citizens”.
The raids, however, are not limited to innocent men and women. Martir Garcia Lara was a fourth grade student who will now miss school after being detained, temporarily separated from his father, and deported back to Honduras at their scheduled immigration hearing–a direct violation of due process. Accounts such as these are what enrage Americans around the world and spark protest in the streets, calling for protection on people who were not lucky enough to be born in the United States but have work ethic, morals, and American pride that trumps natural born citizens.
These statistics raise concern over the Trump administration’s underlying intentions. If he is targeting innocent people, children, blue collar workers, and taxpayers, what is the real reason for deportation? Statistics and anecdotes like these continue to leave the American people speechless and in terror over what’s to come in the near future and continue to hold onto the 65 million Hispanics in America who fear for their families, their friends, and themselves.
By Brooklyn Fischetti