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Alligator Alcatraz evokes racist trope of ‘gator bait’
BIG CYPRESS NATIONAL PRESERVE, FLORIDA, JUL 11 – Lawsuits challenge the facility over unsanitary conditions and lack of oversight, with reports confirming food poisoning, detainee death, and overcrowding of up to 600 people, officials said.
- Governor Ron DeSantis and his team repurposed a 38-square-mile area within the Everglades to establish the Alligator Alcatraz migrant detention center, which has a capacity of 1,000 beds and recently began operations in South Florida.
- The facility’s location amid swampland with alligators and pythons inspired its nickname, which critics say echoes degrading racist tropes like 'gator bait' used to dehumanize Black people.
- Detainees report inhumane conditions such as flooding, bright 24-hour lights, once-daily meals with maggots, lack of showers, and mosquito infestations during the facility’s early operation.
- President Trump visited the facility this week, calling it a possible national model while joking about alligator threats, and the Florida GOP sells related merchandise that some condemn as profiting from human suffering.
- Critics and officials including Democrats have demanded access and sued for oversight, warning that mocking detainees risks repeating historical harms and underscores serious concerns about migrants’ treatment.
32 Articles
32 Articles
First Camp Auschwitz, now Alligator Alcatraz — why the right is obsessed with commodifying brutality
A prison looms over a murky swamp. The building is framed by an alligator with its jaws open, teeth bared in a threatening smile, and a writhing python. Below that image, blood drips down from the words “Florida GOP.” Welcome to Alligator Alcatraz, and the commodification of brutality in the United States. President Donald Trump’s administration and its supporters are taking troll tactics and turning them into merchandise — and memes — to commod…
Alligator Alcatraz: How a swamp became a death camp And why we can’t look away
Just weeks ago, the public was told that the Everglades was uninhabitable and certainly not fit for building infrastructure. But in less than a month, that same swamp was transformed into a federally funded detention center now dubbed Alligator Alcatraz. Rows of white tents stretch across the flooded marshland, lined with cages, guarded by fencing, […] The post Alligator Alcatraz: How a swamp became a death camp And why we can’t look away appear…
Big viewership for The Lincoln Project's ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ ad shows American disgust, group says
The Lincoln Project launched a digital ad earlier this week mocking the so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” erected in South Florida’s alligator-infested swampland — hypothesizing that it will eventually be used to house the very people who erected it in the first place. Since its launch, the ad has collectively received more than 6 million views, according to The Lincoln Project, a number the group claims proves “Americans are disgusted and ashamed …
The Virginian Pilot
Alligator Alcatraz evokes racist trope of ‘gator bait’
By Raisa Habersham, Miami Herald MIAMI — On Sunday, two men stood in front of Alligator Alcatraz to show support for the detention center. One held a sign that read, “Welcome to Paradise. Don’t feed the animals.” The jokes about alligators attacking immigrants while in detention have been casually tossed around by President Donald Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis and conservative and far-right influencers. The Florida GOP and Attorney General James Uthm…
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