History repeats itself at Alligator Alcatraz

A few short months after its opening, Alligator Alcatraz has been ordered to close its doors due to the legal efforts of environmental groups and the Miccosukee tribe.  

Alligator Alcatraz has accumulated a laundry list of human rights violations, including inadequate and wormy food, lack of access to clean drinking water, lack of legal counsel, detainment of those not convicted of a crime and sewage accumulating on the floor rather than being disposed of properly.  

However, the Trump Administration, according to an Aug. 25 Associated Press article titled “Feds fight to keep ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ open amid legal battle as 3rd challenge is filed,”has been fighting to keep it open.  

As a historian, Alligator Alcatraz and similar detention centers remind me of the Japanese Internment camps, and Executive Order 14159, “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” instantly reminded me of Executive Order 9066, the Executive Order that created Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s infamous Japanese internment camps during the Second World War. 

During the Second World War, anti-Japanese American sentiment was high, and Japanese Americans were commonly harassed simply for their ethnicity. This is starkly similar to the anti-Latino sentiment that plagues the United States today.  

According to the National Institute of Justice’s 2022 report titled “Experiences of Victimization Among Latinos: Studies Confirm Significant Victim Mental Health Impact and Mistrust of Authorities,” 28% of Latino Americans have experienced a hate crime in their lifetime, and only 8% of those who had experienced a hate crime reported it to law enforcement.  

https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/experiences-victimization-among-latinos-studies-confirm-significant-victim-mental 

In one of his many Executive Orders that current president Donald Trump issued on his first day in office, “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” Trump states the following: 

“The Secretary of Homeland Security shall promptly take all appropriate action and allocate all legally available resources or establish contracts to construct, operate, control, or use facilities to detain removable aliens.  The Secretary of Homeland Security, further, shall take all appropriate actions to ensure the detention of aliens apprehended for violations of immigration law pending the outcome of their removal proceedings or their removal from the country to the extent permitted by law.” 

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/protecting-the-american-people-against-invasion/ 

Similarly, in Executive Order 9066, Franklin Roosevelt prescribed “military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded, and with respect to which, the right of any person to enter, remain in, or leave shall be subject to whatever restrictions the Secretary of War or the appropriate Military Commander may impose in his discretion.” 

Some may say that Trump’s camps are only targeting illegal immigrants, not the Latino community as a whole. However, according to the PBS article titled, “Alligator Alcatraz detainees held without charges, barred from legal access, attorneys say,” published July 28, many Latino Americans have been held without charges and barred from legal access. 

We must learn from history, not repeat it. Reader, I urge you to contact your representatives and exhort them to advocate for the closure of Alligator Alcatraz and similar camps.