I refuse to call it Alligator Alcatraz. It is not an apt comparison inasmuch as the convicts in Alcatraz received due process. Thus, I refer to it as Miami Manzanar, which is a much better comparison.
For those that don’t know, Manzanar was a concentration camp built during WWII. Now, before you start thinking, “Those damned Nazis!”, Manzanar was built in the United States to house US citizens and residents of Japanese descent. While it is the most famous, it is only one of ten built during the war. George Takei, the beloved actor who played Sulu on the original Star Trek, and now an activist and icon, was held in more than one of these camps over the course of the war. Those camps are a stain on our history.
We are staining our history again. Miami Manzanar, like its namesake, is the most famous of the new concentration camps Donald Trump is having built to house undocumented, and sometimes documented, immigrants, but it is far from the only one. This one, however, does stand out for a funny reason.
It was built and paid for by the State of Florida, under the direction of Gov. Ron DeSantis. It has already flooded, is not up to hurricane codes, and is not, officially, approved by the federal government. Even the land the concentration camp is built on was seized through an executive order signed by DeSantis.
Now, why do I say funny reason? Because the concentration camp is getting a ton of bad press and publicity. We all know that Papaya Palpatine hates bad press and will do anything he can to distance himself from it. How long before he disavows Miami Manzanar and leaves the whole boondoggle hanging around DeSantis’ neck?
While it would be justified to blame DeSantis, he is not a scapegoat. He took his lead from the Trump administration. He made his career on being a mini-Trump and then trying to out-Trump Trump. I lived in Florida for 15 years. Ron DeSantis is a stain on everything that was ever decent about that state.
We’ll see how long it takes for things to come apart at the seams. The first detainees have begun arriving at the facility this weekend. Hurricane season is coming for Florida. Things are about to get uglier than they already are. I can only hope there is no loss of life there because of this cruelty. But, we all know better now, don’t we?