It’s now common knowledge that ICE agents have strict quotas they must hit. Senior Trump official Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem demand that 3,000 people every day be snatched off the streets, with a furious Miller threatening to fire any ICE officials thought to be slacking.
As you might imagine, this inevitably involves paranoid ICE agents making mistakes as they frantically try to up their numbers. And that’s how we get a 15-year-old boy with no criminal record being sent to Trump’s Alligator Alcatraz and being imprisoned with grown men who’re supposed to be “some of the most vicious” people around.
The 15-year-old is identified as Mexican national Alexis, with his father Ignacio describing him as a Dragon Ball Z fan who loves to play basketball. As per ICE’s story, he was a passenger in a vehicle stopped by Florida Highway Patrol troopers and promptly handed over to ICE, who shackled him and consigned him to the depths of the mosquito-riddled swamp concentration camp.
When it first became apparent ICE and the DeSantis administration had accidentally locked up an innocent kid with what they insist are vicious and dangerous criminals, their first response was denial, with Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin saying, “This is inaccurate. You have bad info”.
But, forced into a corner by facts and evidence, Stephanie Hartman, a spokesperson for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, was forced to awkwardly admit:
“While at Alligator Alcatraz, an individual disclosed they had misrepresented their age upon arrest to ICE. Immediate action was taken to separate and remove the detainee in accordance with federal protocols.”
His father Ignacio later explained what happened, saying he’d been picked up while tagging along with friends on a trip to Tampa. Ignacio said Alexis was terrified by the questions and told officers he was an adult as he feared that he’d be separated from them if he was found to be a minor.
Oops
Ignacio had no idea what had happened to his son, resulting in three days of terror as Alexis had apparently disappeared off the face of the Earth. Then came a call confirming Alexis was in Alligator Alcatraz, with Ignacio immediately sending over copies of his birth certificate to prove he’s a minor. Soon afterwards, he was transferred to a shelter for migrant children.
As you might expect, this incident raises some serious questions about safeguarding and identification of those in Alligator Alcatraz – and exposes Trump’s insistence that the camp is exclusively for “some of the most vicious people on the planet” as a lie. In reality, it’s a concentration camp for whoever ICE doesn’t like the look of.
Director of the Children’s Legal Program at Americans for Immigrant Justice, Manrique Alfonso told the Tampa Bay Times: “The case is important to highlight to ensure that there is oversight and safeguards in place because an adult facility is not a place for a child.” Yeah, no kidding. But, with ICE under pressure to snatch as many people as possible, this depressing story is just going to happen over and over again.
