Special Coverage: 8th Prayer Vigil at A***** A****
By Philip Cardella on September 23, 2025
US 41 between Miami and Naples near Mile Marker 48
Dozens gathered for prayer in the muddy recess off of US 41 across from the entrance to the South Florida Detention Center (aka A***** A*****, a racist name) after a stormy day in South Florida on Sunday. It was the eighth consecutive prayer vigil at the site where an unknown number of detainees still languish in unbearable conditions.
Citing news reports and first hand knowledge for clients and, in one particularly potent case, a daughter of a detainee, details about the conditions inside the "concentration camp" were made clear. One detainee was punished for talking back to a guard by being left out in the sun and mosquitos for hours with no water. The lights are left on in the cages where detainees are crammed all day and night giving the inhabitants no idea of what time it is. People are forced to share clothes, and in one tent, COVID-19 is blazing through the population– ambulances leaving the facility are a common sight.
A message of love and harmony persists through the interfaith prayer vigils, despite the set back of one judge functionally ordering it closed and another panel overturning that decision. While other prayer vigils have informed those gathered about the legal fight against the environmental and human rights disaster, or have been about hope and harmony through song, this week's was, frankly, about the horrors within the camp.
The next prayer vigil will be led by Coral Gables Congregational United Church of Christ and occur at 5 PM at the same place near US 41's mile marker 48. There are bathrooms and vending machines at the Oasis Visitors Center open 24 hours six miles to the west of the site. If you go, bring sunscreen and insect repellent and expect muddy conditions. So far, the mosquitos have been tolerable if you have bug spray.
