Faith leaders say closure of Alligator Alcatraz is only the start

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) - It was just last October when faith leaders from across Florida took their ask to the front door of state government: Let us access Alligator Alcatraz to minister to those inside.

They never got that access, but now, the camp appears to be shutting down.

Signatories spread across three pages included Rabbis in Miami, Reverends in Tallahassee and Gainesville and Catholic Bishops in Orlando.

Tuesday, Rev. David Williamson said that request to minister went unanswered. Williamson said the Catholic Church was granted access to perform Mass at Alligator Alcatraz, but other faiths were told migrants would need to call them and request access. He said nobody ever called, or at least, authorities never passed the message along.

Still, he’s celebrating the reported closure of the Everglades camp, but warning there’s far more work to do.

“And so I want to celebrate that it is unoccupied and just say there’s still a lot of work left to be done. We don’t want people in Florida to believe that this is over,” said Williamson.

Now, Williamson and those other faith leaders are turning their advocacy towards state lawmakers, urging them to repeal a state law mandating local law enforcement co-operate with ICE. He said the law has made congregants fearful of attending church, and even more fearful of calling the police.

“I don’t think anybody’s in favor of not holding people accountable who are doing harm in our communities, but the vast majority of people who are immigrants who are not documented have come here for hope and not for harm,” Williamson said.

As of May, Governor Ron DeSantis said the facility had been a key part of cracking down on illegal immigration.

“If we shut the lights out on it tomorrow, we will be able to say it served its purpose because it was responsible for helping with almost 22,000 illegal aliens. And that ultimately is all that it’s about,” DeSantis said on May 8.

And behind headlines of the camp’s closure, advocacy groups say Florida still intends to crack down on undocumented immigrants, this time by denying them access to public universities and colleges.

The Florida Board of Governor’s is set to take an initial vote later this week that would prevent undocumented immigrants from enrolling at FSU, UF, or any other university so long as the university had rejected other applicants in the last two years.

Florida politics:

In effect, Gaby Pacheco, the president and CEO of TheDream.US, said even “Dreamers” will be banned from state schools. She doesn’t want the pending restrictions overshadowed by the Alligator Alcatraz news.

“So reality is that the reason why they’re closing that camp in the Everglades is because they’ve run out of money and Floridians are having to foot that bill and the federal government is just not wanting to pay back,” Pacheco said. “And again, it is going to create a deficit for our institutions because you have these students who are coming in and paying, they’re not getting federal grants, they’re not getting discounts, they’re actually paying for their institutions.”

News of the camp’s permanent closure was first reported by CBS Miami. Last week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced it was moving all detainees to other facilities because of the hurricane season.

A spokesperson for the Florida Department of Emergency Management hasn’t responded to our request for comment. However, President Donald Trump had previously praised the camp, and even toured it almost one year ago. The president previously said he wanted Florida’s facility to be used as a model in other states.

According to previous reporting, Governor DeSantis said he expects the federal government to reimburse the more than $600 million it has spent on operating the camp. It’s unclear if that reimbursement will occur, though both Williamson and Pacheco say the state won’t be reimbursed at all.