The joke’s on us as DeSantis, Trump make light of deporting people | Opinion

It’s apparently all so very funny to our leaders, this idea of putting human beings out in the middle of a swampland in Florida in the name of immigration enforcement.

Take Gov. Ron DeSantis. On Monday, he was talking about Alligator Alcatraz, as his administration has so cleverly named the idle airstrip about 40 miles west of Miami International Airport, when the topic of security came up.

“You bring people in there, they ain’t going anywhere unless you want them to go somewhere, because good luck getting to civilization. So the security is amazing,” he said during a press conference, pausing for a swell of laughter from the audience. He allowed himself a little smile and added: “Natural and otherwise.”

And then there’s President Trump. Asked about the Florida detention camp on Tuesday before he flew from Washington to tour the hastily constructed facility in South Florida, he offered a bit of advice to would-be escapees: “Don’t run in a straight line,” he said. “Run like this,” he added, while using his hand to make a zig-zag pattern. “And you know what, your chances go up by 1%. Not a good thing.” (By the way, that’s not even correct advice on evading a gator.)

After the tour, he tried another witty quip about how secure South Florida’s tent city will be: “A lot of body guards, a lot of cops in the form of alligators,” he told reporters. “You don’t have to pay them so much.”

Amid all of this hilarity, there’s rarely a mention of the detainees as human beings who have been plucked from their lives, sometimes without cause. There’s not even a whiff of compassion or nuance about how all cases are not the same. (What about that 75-year-old Cuban dad who died in immigration custody in Miami last week?) But when it comes to the logistics of removing people from this country, well, you can’t get these folks to stop talking.

They’re happy to recite all manner of details about the marvelous efficiency of Florida’s new detention machinery: an airstrip for oh-so-easy deportation flights, 1,000 beds with more to come, the blinding speed at which the tent city was put up in a mere eight days and how this could be a model for the rest of the country.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, who has thoroughly embraced his role as the face of this detention center project, has called the camp a “one-stop shop for immigration enforcement.” It’s also on environmentally sensitive land just east of Big Cypress National Preserve, which is federally protected land.

Notably missing from the discussion: how our country is continuing its Trump-directed march toward forcing all kinds of immigrants — not just criminals — out of the United States. Where’s the talk about the 350,00 Venezuelans or half-million Haitians for whom Temporary Protected Status — a government designation — has been revoked?

What about the 531,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela whose humanitarian parole is now being yanked away? All of those people can’t be members of Tren de Aragua, the Venezuela-based criminal gang.

And then there are the people who are here illegally but have contributed to this country and committed no crimes — what about them? A lot, no doubt, are workers we depend on, and their only crime is coming here to do the work we, as Americans, don’t want to do.

But why bother with all of that when there’s... merch? The Republican Party is selling Alligator Alcatraz gear — t-shirts and hats — in black and camo. Yes, Florida now has a detention camp with merch. Totally normal.

The gear, as offensive as it is, isn’t the point, though. It’s a sideshow. The real focus should be on the callousness of our elected leaders as they joke and jest their way toward imprisoning people in a tent city in the Everglades. The country’s mass deportations are continuing, and they’re doing it our name. This is a moment of terrible seriousness, not a time for one-liners at the expense of human beings.

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This story was originally published July 1, 2025 at 4:50 PM.