The 26th Weekly Sunday Prayer Vigil Across from the Alligator Alcatraz

By Philip Cardella January 28, 2026

US 41 aka Tamiami Trail Near Mile Marker 48

Persistent myths about the South Florida Detention Center, commonly known by its openly racist nickname Alligator Alcatraz, abound. The State of Florida has perpetuated some of them. One is that the Dade-Collier Training and Transportation Airport is a little used runway in the middle of nowhere. Another, that the State of Florida isn't perpetuating but isn't countering either is that Alligator Alcatraz is closed.

Watch this one minute video and tell me if US 41 appears to be a little used road or that Alligator Alcatraz is closed.

Something you'll note is the four sheriff's department cruisers that go by are from Sarasota County, which is three hours away from the Dade-Collier Training and Transportation Airport.

Remember, the facility is in Collier County and the suburbs of the City of Naples, is just 40 minutes west of the site and the suburbs of Miami, in Miami-Dade County are about 30 minutes to the east of it.

An aside on that distance, check out this guy who was walking from Miami to Naples. I passed him on my way to the prayer vigil at the gas station across from the Miccosukee Indian Village tourist site. Before the vigil was even over, which had started when I arrived, he had walked from a gas station to the site of the supposedly remote location.

Because Sarasota County Sheriff's Department is required to sign on to the 287g agreement with the Department of Homeland Security by the State of Florida, this is the taxpayers of Sarasota County's money at work. With approximately 500,000 residents during the winter, several deputy units from the county are required to attend training and offset costs at the detention center nearly 200 miles away holding people alleged to have broken Federal, not state or local, immigration rules.

This hides the true costs of the facility as these costs, all of which should be the Federal Government's responsibility as the Federal Government along is legally tasked with immigration enforcement, are spread throughout state, county and city municipalities. At the end of the video, Betty Osceola of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, mentions a lawsuit. That lawsuit, which a judge endorsed, rules that the state must release all records as to who is running the facility.

The State and Federal governments are saying there's nothing to show because the state controls the entire facility.

Obviously, we here at TWIFL are against the site. There are many reasons to be against it, even if one agrees generally, broadly or even specifically with the sort of immigration enforcement policies the Trump Administration and the Florida State government under Governor Ron DeSantis are deploying.

I cannot think of even one reason to be for the site operating as it is currently on land seized from Miami-Dade County with no compensation I'm aware of, controlled by Federal laws enshrined to protect the exact site that are so specific they created the entire National Preserve system because of the Dade-Collier Training and Transportation Airport, using state and Federal tax payer money in opaque ways meant to obscure how much money is being spent and where exactly the money is being spent.

At least 1200 people are known to be missing from the site, which could mean anything from they were secretly moved to they were murdered and buried in the area around the tent city detention camp.

Avi Hoffman, a Jewish man whose father weighed under 70 pounds when he was liberated from Auschwitz, told the crowd this week that even the Nazis didn't lose people.

The facility is an unknown burden to an unknown range of taxpayers, it has been credibly accused of torturing detainees by Amnesty International, alligators are perhaps the worst guard dogs imaginable as they eat only a couple of times a month and mostly sun bathe (two idiots were throwing rocks at an eight foot one across the street from the vigil and laughing about how it wouldn't move--I mad them stop), its an ecological disaster violating Federal environmental laws and ignoring state permitting laws, and...the list goes on and on.

And for what benefit? Undocumented detainees can be humanely deported from the United States. No one did it more than Presidents Obama and Biden (remember, Obama's term started in 2009 and this chart only goes back to October 2013)--President Obama's 3,000,000 deported is still the most by any US President.

While ICE claims to have deported a "record" 600,000 people in 2025, independent analysis suggests the number is more likely 310,00 for the year. While 310,000 is still a lot of people, the Obama Administration deported at least 3,000,000 people over eight years which is about 375,000 per year. The point is, you can deport people in a way that is less controversial to the average person regardless of the ire of immigration rights advocates. But that's not at all what's happening in Alligator Alcatraz.

Just today former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson spoke to NPR about this very thing–you absolutely can deport people in a humane fashion.

As for the unnecessary cruelty going on right here in South Florida, take for example Arianne Betancourt's father, Justo Betancourt, a man detained in November at a routine immigration meeting required by his Green Card status. Justo Betancourt is diabetic and while detained at Alligator Alcatraz, has not received proper treatment. When your diabetes goes untreated it messes with your kidneys and nothing in your body messes with your brain like sick kidneys. So, Justo Betancourt's untreated diabetes is likely why, when he was suddenly stuck on a plane to El Paso, Texas last week and given a 72 hour deportation notice, then deported, he was returned by Mexico to El Paso, Texas, because he was too sick to be accepted into the country. He is now back in Alligator Alcatraz.

Here's Arianne telling the story for herself at this week's prayer vigil.

With just under 100 people in attendance for the January 25, 2026 vigil, the 26th vigil, which marks six months of weekly vigils, the speakers were particularly impactful, especially after the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Arianne, by the way, was in Chicago when her father was sent to El Paso. In a panic, she joined friends with Owl Media and traveled to Minneapolis rather than returning to Florida and breaking down. It's all in the short video above.

Was she pepper sprayed in Minneapolis? Yes, yes she was.

The vigil this week marking six months of weekly Sunday prayer vigils featured two more powerful speakers as well. One, a regular at the vigils for the last several months who has hardly uttered a word previously, another, a first time attendee who is a Cuban immigrant now running for Florida's 26th Congressional District.

First, the candidate, Yurina Gil, on the nightmare of living in Cuba, the eerie similarities to the United States today and why DEI is a good thing, not a bad one.

Here is the other speaker I mentioned, Javier. Javier has been at at least a dozen of the prayer vigils--I think in a row. He rarely speaks, but he is the loudest, by far, shouting "Shut it down" whenever that chant inevitably starts. He went sans microphone on Sunday as he spoke about what it means to love people. Javier, by the way, served two tours in the United States Army as a member of the infantry.

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