Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has said that the country is demanding the repatriation of at least 30 of its citizens currently being held in the controversial Florida immigration detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz”.
The Mexican leader said on Wednesday that a note had been sent to US authorities “demanding that any Mexicans who might enter this detention center should be repatriated immediately”.
Sheinbaum added: “They have no reason to enter these detention centers. Within the framework of the United States’ own laws, what we seek is for them to return to our country immediately and not be detained in this manner.”
The 39-acre (16 hectares) camp erected about 40 miles (64km) from Miami has come under heavy criticism from non-profit organizations who say detainees are held in overcrowded pods, along with sewage backups “resulting in cages flooded with feces”, and, in some cases, have been denied medical care.
Yet, the Trump administration and local Florida officials have flaunted the facility’s brutality since it opened earlier this month, emphasizing its isolated location in a swamp infested with pythons, alligators and crocodiles.
Sheinbaum’s comments come after the Mexican consul in Miami, Rutilio Escandón, visited the Florida detention center this week, becoming the first overseas consul to do so.
“One of the complaints is that they bathe every three days, that they’re allowed to bathe every three days,” Escandón told the Telemundo TV station, referring to the 39 Mexicans he was able to interview. “Sometimes the air conditioning is very cold – they say sometimes it’s at 60 [degrees fahrenheit]. But it’s also very hot and there’s a lot of mosquitoes.”
On Sunday, Roberto Velasco Álvarez, head of the North American unit at the Mexican foreign ministry, announced that two young brothers who had been held at Alligator Alcatraz, one of whom was visiting the US on a tourist visa, had been repatriated to Mexico without charges.
The opening of the Alligator Alcatraz facility comes amid a nationwide crackdown by the Trump administration on migrants and asylum seekers, with agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) sweeping up tens of thousands of people in raids across the country.
“The treatment of our fellow citizens there, particularly with these raids, is deeply painful,” Sheinbaum said. “We will always be there to support them.”
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