An immigrant rights activist has claimed a significant number of detainees from Alligator Alcatraz have gone missing. Thomas Kennedy in Florida came forward with an alarming observation of more than 1,000 detainees who have gone administratively missing from ICE custody.
They have disappeared from the detention camp, according to the Policy Analyst at Florida Immigrant Coalition’s statement on The Take, an Al Jazeera podcast. Kennedy mentioned the database of the center also doesn’t allow people to search the names of the detainees or any other basic details. It’s like their names have been wiped and have not been added to the searchable public ICE database.
He said, “This is a completely state-run immigration detention facility. Now that means that there is no communication between DHS and the state of Florida.” If getting picked by ICE agents in unmarked vans was not scary enough, people are disappearing from ICE custody without their hearing dates.
He added, “People just don’t show up at all,’ implying several people don’t make it to the scheduled hearing and are deported even before that. According to the Miami Herald‘s report, almost two-thirds of the detained men, adding up to 1,800, had gone missing from Alligator Alcatraz in July.
Their whereabouts could not be figured out despite the paper getting access to two detainee rosters. Moreover, 800 people do not even appear on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Online Detainee Locator System. They are not present in the searchable public database, where their families cannot look for them or learn about their whereabouts (via The Mirror).
Over 450 detainees did not have their location listed, and people were instructed to call ICE for further details. Another surprising detail was that many detainees did not have any final orders from the immigration judges that allowed their removal.
However, their families could not find them in the system. Alligator Alcatraz detention center’s operation was stopped in August when a federal district judge ruled against the facility over environmental issues.
After that, there was a hold on the decision due to the federal appeals, and it was back on track. Furthermore, the Florida Immigrant Coalition agreed that the Herald‘s report has been warning about the disappearance in the detention center for months now.
Many people have described the detention center as brutal, where detainees are tortured. Those who need medical care, even in emergencies, are not given any services. The living conditions in the center are reportedly poor.
Several family members have spoken against the alleged “inhumane treatment” at the detention center, one adding, “They don’t see the daylight. They don’t know what time it is. He’ll call me and say, What time is it? What day is it?”
Netizens have often compared the detention center to a concentration camp. With so many people allegedly missing, nobody knows what happened to them.
