TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — The Interfaith Community calls for the shutdown of immigrant detention center, “Alligator Alcatraz.”
- The facility, dubbed Alligator Alcatraz, is described by activists as a “moral emergency” they say it is separating families, violating human rights, and operating far from the oversight typical of such centers.
- Organizers plan to maintain a weekly vigil every Sunday at 5:00 p.m. until the state government answers their demands of immediate shutdown of the site and the end of state cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Watch the video to see faith leaders and community members from across Tallahassee gather for a vigil to get Alligator Alcatraz to shut down.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
In a city where laws are written, Tallahassee’s faith leaders are writing their own message of moral resistance.
I’m Lyric Sloan, in Downtown Tallahassee, where a vigil is calling on Governor DeSantis and the state government to shut down a controversial immigrant detention site in the Everglades.
Near the steps of the Old Capitol, dozens gathered Sunday night with prayers on their lips calling for the closure of what they describe as one of Florida’s darkest places, Alligator Alcatraz.
Vigil organizer Claudia Sperber says she has personal ties to the detention center that are driving her efforts.
“ I have friends here in Tallahassee, whose husbands were locked up on May 29 when there was that big construction raid, and they are still in that detention center. Down there in Alligator Alcatraz there are so many innocent men and women locked up and it is wrong and it is terrible and those people should be let go today and should have the right to follow normal pathways to citizenship,” Sperber said.
The nickname Alligator Alcatraz refers to an immigrant detention center deep in the Everglades where activists say the state is detaining people under inhumane conditions, which they believe is putting a dent in humanity.
“In my tradition and many others, we treat our neighbors as we wish to be treated, and I am so concerned for humanity. I am concerned for the way people are being removed from their homes and off the street,” Stephanie Posner, Temple Israel’s Director of Congregational Life & Learning, Social Justice Team Member, said.
The vigil comes just days after a federal appeals court on Thursday allowed the state to continue operations at the facility. But faith leaders say that decision doesn’t reflect moral justice and they’re calling on Governor DeSantis to act.
“We are also calling on our elected leaders who have created these policies that make alligator Alcatraz and other facilities like the impossible to shut them down to not replicate that model anymore in our state into stop requiring the law-enforcement in our cities, counties and state to cooperate with ice because of the impact it is having on our immigrant neighbors,” Belonging Inc., Rev. David Williamson said.
Organizers plan to return to the steps of the old Capitol every Sunday at 5:00 until the state shuts down the detention site and ends its cooperation with ICE.”
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