Photo by Jessica Namath
Audio By Carbonatix
Since Florida opened the controversial Alligator Alcatraz immigration detention site in the middle of the Everglades this past summer, the road signs outside the facility have become somewhat of a tourist draw. Visitors have regularly pulled over to snap selfies with the blue and green signs that read “Alligator Alcatraz,” some even bringing their kids along for the photo op.
Now, after months of the Trump administration ramping up its aggressive anti-immigration efforts — including at Alligator Alcatraz — those same signs have drawn a more confrontational type of attention.
Photos shared with New Times show at least one of the signs recently spray-painted with the words “FUCK ICE” in bright red.
Miccosukee tribal leader Betty Osceola, who has spent months protesting the facility, says she saw the words appear on two different “Alligator Alcatraz” signs — one east of the site and one to the west — several days ago.
On October 27, the X (formerly Twitter) account Solidarity South Florida (@solidaritysfl) shared a photo of another “Alligator Alcatraz” sign tagged again with the words “FUCK ICE,” but in a slightly more legible form.
“Spotted in the Everglades #FuckICE,” reads the post.
Osceola says that, from what she understands, workers were cleaning up the signs on October 27.
The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), the state agency that manages the signs, didn’t respond to New Times‘ emailed questions asking about when they might’ve been cleaned.
In early July, Florida’s Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) quickly constructed the facility at the remote Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, a little-used airstrip in the middle of the swampy Everglades.
Since detainees first arrived at Alligator Alcatraz, they’ve reported inhumane and unsanitary conditions, including relentless swarms of giant mosquitoes, extreme temperature swings, and inadequate medical care. Because immigration enforcement is typically handled by the federal government, and Alligator Alcatraz is run by the state, detainees held there haven’t appeared in the usual ICE database.
Immigration attorneys, who say they’ve had limited access to their clients, have described it as a “black hole.”
While a federal judge previously ordered the state to begin dismantling the site over environmental concerns, an appeals court later ruled that it could remain open and the government can resume sending detainees there. Following the initial injunction, however, the state began transferring many detainees out of the site.
As of the end of August, the Miami Herald reported that of the estimated 1,800 detainees held there in July, hundreds had since “dropped off the grid.”
A recent appeal in federal court by environmental groups, requesting that the detention center be officially shuttered, was paused last week due to the government shutdown.
