The opening of 'Alligator Alcatraz' in Florida marks a drastic escalation in immigration enforcement practices, focusing on large-scale detainment of migrants. This facility can accommodate up to three thousand individuals, raising serious concerns about racial profiling. Reports indicate that detainees include individuals arrested for minor offenses, often linked to their Hispanic appearance. Additionally, this facility represents a shift where state authorities, instead of federal agents, are taking the lead on immigration arrests, suggesting a potential model for other red states seeking similar funding from the federal government for their own facilities.
What is utterly horrifying about it in practice is it's just a recipe for mass racial profiling. Lawyers are already reporting that some people being held in this facility were arrested for traffic violations or just the most minor offenses, likely because they look Hispanic.
Two things immediately strike me as being unprecedented with the opening of this facility. The first is the idea that a state is doing this on its own. It's not the federal government making those immigration arrests.
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