Who knew the Aurora ICE Detention Center could be considered something less shameful than the Bastille of Colorado? That certainly was not on my bingo card for the Independence Day holiday weekend.
Yet due to the bottomless immorality of the current administration, that is the reality.
Do not get me wrong. The Aurora ICE Detention Center is an awful place. Like any prison, its very design is meant to be uncomfortable for detainees and visitors alike. From hard plastic chairs to thick, cold cement walls under low ceilings lit by fluorescent tubes overhead. Even without the guards and the gates, you know you are in a prison.
Many of the people — though not all — working inside have adopted a callous attitude toward their wards. They treat any request for assistance as an inconvenience and often look for ways to assert their power over imprisoned people. As if the detainees needed a reminder of the imbalance.
Those trapped inside must deal with crammed cells and packed common areas. Many have either no criminal record or minor traffic infractions, yet they have been locked away with others who have violent pasts and temperaments.
But at least the Aurora ICE Detention Center is not made to actively harm them.
The same cannot be said for the recently unveiled facility in the Florida Everglades. It has been dubbed Alligator Alcatraz by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Trump Administration; they have not even tried to hide their glee over the hardships planned for detainees. Pain and suffering are part of the allure.
Fenced cages packed with make-shift bunkbeds led to easy comparisons to a notorious Nazi concentration camp and the counter-moniker Alligator Auschwitz. Trump underscored the indifference to human life by telling reporters that they would “teach (detainees) how to run away from an alligator.”
Despite the presence of dangerous reptiles outside the facilities, they pose far less risk than the conditions within. Set in the sweltering swamp, the facility will subject its detainees to environmental risks that put their lives in danger. The inescapable combination of heat and humidity racing toward 100 will make breathing a struggle. The packed presence of so many other people, their breath and sweat comingling with the fetid air from the swamp, will choke the inhabitants.
Swarms of insects will be drawn to the facility, feeding off the people within. Snakes, rats and other swamp creatures will cohabitate with detainees. It took less than a day for the facility to flood. Stagnant water inside and out make massive petri dishes of bacteria and airborne illness that could quickly infect the entire population.
The human misery is purposeful and intended to break the people within.
Various officials, including Trump himself, have stated that the only way out is deportation. They make no allowance for the detainees who have valid claims for staying in the country. The facility is tailormade to make detainees waive their legal rights in order to escape Hell on Earth.
DeSantis proved as much by proposing to deputize National Guard Judges Advocate General (JAGs) to perform immigration hearings at the facility. It is windowdressing for a plan to undermine due process and the rule of law. While I do not doubt the competence of JAGs, immigration law is nuanced and specific; putting untrained judges in that position amounts to asking for a rubber stamp for deportation.
Trump and DeSantis want the appearance of due process without the substance.
They did it all with money stripped from FEMA as Florida enters into hurricane season. With prediction models hamstrung by Trump, there will now be less money for recovery. Of course, that pales in comparison to the danger posed for detainees in the event of a hurricane. The entire facility could become a deathtrap for everyone locked inside.
Even the nation’s worst convicted criminals housed at Colorado’s SuperMax prison receive better treatment and more consideration than the people forced into a van outside a Home Depot and shipped to Florida.
The entire circumstance should turn stomachs. Instead, MAGA faithful have reveled in the mistreatment of others and begun snatching up merchandise sold by the Florida Republican Party to glorify the facility’s existence. Republicans in other red states have begun plans to build their own versions. There really is no bottom depth to their depravity.
In response, my friend and colleague Rick Wilson recently suggested that we should keep Alligator Alcatraz open to house those who have abused power during the Trump Administration when power shifts. A less tongue-in-cheek answer would be to make it a national monument. Just as Germany has made Auschwitz a historical reminder and Colorado has designated its Amache internment camp to educate future generations, America should keep Alligator Alcatraz to remember the horror and inhumanity of the current moment.
Mario Nicolais is an attorney and columnist who writes on law enforcement, the legal system, health care and public policy. Follow him on Bluesky: @MarioNicolais.bsky.social.
The Colorado Sun is a nonpartisan news organization, and the opinions of columnists and editorial writers do not reflect the opinions of the newsroom. Read our ethics policy for more on The Sun’s opinion policy. Learn how to submit a column. Reach the opinion editor at [email protected].
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