The American Civil Liberties Union chapter in Puerto Rico is denouncing the transfer of immigrants detained in the U.S. territory to “Alligator Alcatraz,” the new immigration detention facility built in Florida in just one week on an abandoned airstrip surrounded by swampland.
People who are taken into immigration custody in Puerto Rico, many of them from the Dominican Republic, are sent to the mainland U.S., as the island lacks permanent detention centers that can hold detainees for prolonged periods.
The ACLU of Puerto Rico said Friday in a news release that they had received reports this week of detainees from the island being transferred to the facility in Florida as well as allegations of “rights violations and dehumanizing treatment.”
Annette Martínez, the executive director of the civil rights nonprofit, condemned President Donald Trump’s plan to build more detention centers as well as the construction of Alligator Alcatraz during an interview with NBC News earlier this month.
“This isn’t even a detention center. We’re talking about a facility that more closely resembles a torture center,” Martínez said in Spanish. “It’s even been described as a place where you enter and you can’t leave.”
In a lawsuit filed by the ACLU this week against the Department of Homeland Security, four people detained in Alligator Alcatraz and their attorneys alleged that the federal government has interfered with their ability to access detainees and provide counsel for those being held there.
Michael Borrego Fernández, a Cuban national being held in the Florida detention center and one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, alleged “harsh and inhumane conditions” at the facility.
“He reported that detained people were told that they are only allowed one meal a day (and given only minutes to eat), are not permitted daily showers, and are otherwise kept around the clock in a cage inside a tent,” the complaint states. “Mr. Borrego also reported that there have been physical assaults and excessive use of force by people working as guards, and a lack of medical care and attention.”
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin denied allegations of inhumane conditions, telling NBC News in a statement: “No lawbreakers in the history of human civilization have been treated better than illegal aliens in the United States.”
An estimated 700 detainees in Alligator Alcatraz are being held in cage-style units covered by white tent structures erected in the middle of a hurricane-prone wetland surrounded by snakes and alligators.
Since its construction, immigrant detainees and their loved ones have alleged terrible conditions in the facility — including lack of water, issues with electricity and copious mosquitoes.
A Dominican immigrant who was arrested in Puerto Rico last month has spent two weeks detained in Alligator Alcatraz. In an interview with El Nuevo Día, a Puerto Rican newspaper, the immigrant alleged that detainees with medical conditions are unable to access treatment and described having little access to food and showers.
“We are concerned that the United States government, which tries to present itself internationally as beacon of democracy and justice, is developing immigration policy in this way,” Martínez said.
Trump’s efforts to carry out mass deportations is reshaping immigration enforcement in Puerto Rico, which had long been perceived as a sanctuary for immigrants.
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