Lawmakers in Florida are raising alarm over documents suggesting immigrant children and pregnant women could be detained at āAlligator Alcatraz.ā
A draft operational plan obtained by the Miami Herald suggests minors could indeed be transported to the controversial site in the Everglades. The 35-page undated document details protocols to āseparate minors from unrelated adultsā and to provide āsnacks and waterā to minors, pregnant women and detainees with medical conditions during transport.
āThe State of Florida is planning to send pregnant women and children to the āAlligator Alcatrazā detention camp,ā wrote State Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith on social media. āThis is totally un-American. We cannot be silent.ā
Recognising that some portions of the population are at higher risk leads to better outcomes for them if we follow where that thinking leads. The idea that all men are persecuted as men are more likely to take others rights, in a patriarchy where women have less rights, pay and justice is ridiculous.
Men should not be assumed guilty. Most arenāt and never will be. However, we should recognise those who are at risk and place protections for them. Lack of protections for those that are higher risk is not the same as selectively prosecuting them, which is your implication.
But weāre talking about a situation in which the protections are against unjust persecution. Selective lack of protections in this case is quite literally the same as selective persecution.
No, they are not the same thing. Just like not prosecuting children is not the same as selectively prosecuting adults.
It is also fine to prosecute pregnant women. We just donāt send them to conditions that put them and their baby at risk. Itās protection from severe risk, not protection from consequences or prosecution.
Alligator Auschwitz is an abomination and nobody should be held there. However, there are degrees of inhumane. Sending pregnant women there is more inhumane than sending an able bodied man.