More than 60 people gathered recently outside the Everglades detention facility known as Alligator Alcatraz for their 21st freedom vigil. Organized by The Workers Circle, a Jewish social justice organization, the group prayed for those inside.

Members of the Miccosukee tribe, Southwest Florida Interfaith Alliance, Unitarian Universalist Congregation, and The Workers Circle came together alongside family members of detainees and protestors as they have every Sunday for months.

Despite a federal judge’s order to shut down the facility in September, it is still operational. Elia Rivero stood across the street with a sign that read “No more detention camps, No more broken families.” Her father, Rafael Rivero, has been detained for a month.

“We've had contact with him. They say that inside they barely feed them,” Elia Rivero said. “They get to shower every three days. The water is very dirty. They have no human rights whatsoever. They beat them. They do everything to them. They don't want them to talk, and the only thing they get is calls, but that's about it. We're not able to see them.”

Rafael Rivero was able to detail his treatment through a phone call from inside the facility, translated from Spanish by his daughter. He watched a 72-year-old man named Julio Huelva Valdez be stripped naked, locked in a cage, and hit with a spray gun before having his wrist broken for complaining about moldy food. He alleged the man has not received any medical care for his injuries.

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Roxana Torres attended the vigil with her mother and 11-month-old baby. She said her husband, Michael Rojas, has been detained for 53 days. She reported he also witnessed Valdez being abused by guards.

“The water is contaminated. The food every day is more or less. A person inside said something about the food, they took him to a private cell and hit him and gave him the spray gun in the face,” Torres said.

Lifelong Workers Circle member Avi Hoffman has attended all 21 vigils with a now-tattered sign depicting both the Dachau concentration camp and Alligator Alcatraz with the message “What’s the Difference?” in red lettering. He shared that both of his parents had survived being imprisoned in Dachau during the Holocaust.

“The language and the uniforms might be a little different, but the policies, the bureaucracy, the cruelty, the dangerous normalization of cruelty is chillingly familiar,” Hoffman said.

The Workers Circle will hold vigils across the street from the Everglades detention facility every Sunday until all detainees are released. It offers a free bus to vigils with pick-up at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Greater Naples on Napa Way, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fort Myers on Shire Lane, and Tamiami Crossing Shopping Center off Tamiami Trail East.

Alligator Alcatraz is constructed on Miccosukee land, originally rented for use as the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport. Tribe member Betty Osceola has attended nearly every vigil. She spoke on how light, water, and noise pollution can disrupt the surrounding environment, which is part of Big Cypress National Preserve.

“I think about the family of panthers that are actually documented by the preserve of living around in this area, how they must feel being displaced. I think about the owls, the nocturnal animals, and their environment being invaded,” Osceola said.

The Miccosukkee people launched a lawsuit against government officials with environmental groups Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity in July. They are still working to halt operations and protect the sensitive wetland ecosystem.

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