Donald Trump’s visit to the migrant detention center located in the Everglades, Florida – that the authorities ironically nicknamed “the Alcatraz of the Alligators” – caused a lot of ink to flow on Tuesday. This new center arouses the indignation of human rights organizations. The press dissect controversy.
What is it?
Dad-collier airport, located in Ochopee for some time, 73 km from downtown Miami, was converted into a temporary detention center for migrants in a record time of eight days. The establishment was to receive its first occupants as soon as possible Wednesday.
Under tents and modular buildings surrounded by 8,500 meters of barbed wire, bunk beds have been arranged to accommodate around 3000 migrants, specifies the administration of Florida.
Thanks to a decree filed in 2023 by the Governor of Florida, Ron Desantis, the emergency management agency bought the land of the airport against $ 20 million.
PHOTO EVAN VUCCI, ASSOCIATED PRESS
President Donald Trump with Florida Governor Ron Desantis, on the sidelines of their visit to the “Alcatraz des Alligators” on Tuesday
During his visit to the detention center in Florida, the American president told the media present that the “most threatening migrants, some of the most vicious individuals on the planet” would soon be detained there. He added: “The only way out, in reality, is expulsion. »»
The visit occurred while its budgetary project, which includes financing a large expulsion program for illegal migrants, was under discussion in the American Senate.
Why do it qualify him as “Alcatraz of the Alligators”?
Murching migrants in an irregular situation who will soon be detained there and who could try to escape, Donald Trump launched during his visit on Tuesday: “We have a lot of cops in the form of alligators, you do not need to pay them as much. »»
I wouldn’t want to run long in the Everglades. It will keep the people where they are supposed to be.
Donald Trump
The latter had mentioned in the past to want to reopen the doors of the famous Alcatraz prison, in San Francisco, in order to hold migrants.
The site was built over 16 kilometers in the Everglades, subtropical wetlands of great ecological importance. A single winding road connects the old airport to the neighboring cities.
Where do the funds necessary for its operation come from?
It is the state of Florida that allowed the center to see the light of day so quickly and which will provide the funds necessary for its operation.
The detention center is expected to cost 450 million US dollars per year, an official of the Department of Homeland Security in an interview with CNN Florida reported.
A fund of $ 625 million unlocked by the Biden administration, which was to be used to send humanitarian aid to migrants hosted in the United States, will be mobilized to finance a good part of the expenses, said Kristi Noem, the United States’s internal security secretary.
More than 59,000 individuals are said to be held by immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the immigration police, reports Associated Press.
What are the environmental issues?
Various environmental organizations in the region, including Friends of the Everglades, as well as members of the Aboriginal community of Miccosukee are concerned about the consequences that the detention center could have on the rich ecosystems that thrive in the surrounding marshes.
PHOTO GIORGIO VIERA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Protesters protested against President Donald Trump’s visit to the “Alcatraz of the Alligators” on Tuesday.
“Any other project that would have been proposed in the Everglades should have gone through an intense environmental approval process, I am convinced that it did not have this success, because it is a political blow,” the lawyer said at the center for biological diversity Elise Pautler Bennett at a press conference.
How does this center anchor in the global migratory vision of Donald Trump?
“It is part of the will of the Trump government to have methods that I would describe as extrajudices to tackle the issue of irregular immigration,” said Francis Langlois, associated member of the Observatory on the United States of the Raoul-Dandurand Chair.
Specializing in particular in armed violence in the United States, the professor explains that this kind of establishments facilitates the expulsions of migrants carried out outside the legal process required to do so.
“Up to a certain point, these kinds of measures are a radicalization of the means implemented to increase the security system in the United States. The president also spoke of sending American citizens there, ”adds Mr. Langlois.
Is it likely to be other such centers?
President Donald Trump, Governor Ron Desantis as well as the internal security secretary Kristi Noem all mentioned the possibility that other similar centers are emerging in Florida or elsewhere in the country.
It should not be forgotten that similar centers exist, but that they are under the supervision of the Federal Agency, where people are entitled to a minimum of procedures. That does not prevent seeing large convoys of individuals expelled by plane leaving the country without legislative procedures.
Francis Langlois, associated member of the Observatory on the United States of the Raoul-Dandurand Chair
The expert believes that the multiplication of centers like that which has been erected in the Everglades is only a matter of time.
With information from BBC, CBS, Associated Press and the France-Presse agency
A judge blocks the decree prohibiting access to asylum seekers on the border
US district district judge Randolph Moss in Washington decided on Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s decree suspended access to asylum requests on the border with Mexico was illegal, questioning one of the pillars of the President’s plan to repress immigration to this border. Judge Moss indicated that his decree blocking policy would come into force on July 16, which gives the Trump administration time to appeal. In a January 20 decree, Donald Trump said that the situation on the southern border was an invasion of the United States and that he “suspended the physical entry” of migrants and their possibility of asking for asylum until he decides that the situation was finished. Judge Moss wrote that neither the Constitution nor the Immigration Act give the President “an extra-structural and extra-regulatory regime to repatriate or expel people from the United States, without the possibility of requesting asylum” or other humanitarian protections. This decision comes at a time when the White House announces that the border police carried out 6070 arrests in June, a decrease of 30 % compared to May, thus establishing the lowest annual rate since 1966.
Associated Press
