Amnesty International: Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz is a ‘human rights disaster’ | Opinion

Paying for cruelty

Re: the Feb. 25 Herald online story, “State admits federal funding for Alligator Alcatraz may ‘not materialize.’” Under Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida has become a testing ground for harsh immigration enforcement policies closely aligned with the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant agenda.

Our research shows that while Florida has put millions of dollars into Alligator Alcatraz, the state has simultaneously cut billions from essential programs that support health care, food security, emergency response and housing. That’s an appalling set of priorities and Floridians should be alarmed.

Conditions in Alligator Alcatraz are despicable and inhumane; it’s a human rights disaster. This cruel agenda is wrong no matter who foots the bill. Cruelty is not sound public policy.

Expanding militarized enforcement in neighborhoods and promising to build more detention centers (as DeSantis has done) doubles down on a system defined by racism, abuse and dehumanization. It does nothing to keep communities safe. Alligator Alcatraz should be shut down and all new facilities halted.

Amy Fischer,

director, refugee and migrant rights,

Amnesty International USA

Making a splash

State Rep. Danny Alvarez isn’t stupid, but he sure thinks the rest of us are. The Hillsborough County Republican is the frontman for HB 945, a bill which would create a “counterintelligence and counterterrorism” unit within the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

The price tag is $2 million. The top beneficiary may be the only corporation which has registered to lobby on the bill. “Cellebrite” sounds like a toothpaste or a dietary supplement, but it’s an Israeli company specializing in “data extraction” from cellphones and the ever-increasing personal information they store about people’s smart TVs, medical devices, refrigerators and smart sex toys.

Alvarez said we need this because we can’t trust the federal government to protect us from “bad actors” who are perhaps “trying to bring in a fungus into our water supply.”

That might come as news to Alvarez’ fellow Republicans, such as Rick Scott, Marco Rubio and Pam Bondi. As elected Florida public officials, they developed close working relationships with the many federal agencies and joint task forces charged with keeping fungus out of the water supply.

Today, they have more power than ever to assure Floridians we can drink the water safely. There is no need to drink the Kool-Aid Alvarez is peddling.

Florence Beth Snyder,

Tallahassee

Diversity is an asset

According to a recent Miami Herald report, Florida lawmakers are moving forward with legislation to prohibit local governments from supporting any “DEI” activities.

When did diversity, equity and inclusion become viewed as negative attributes?

I was born in and grew up in Miami, one of the most diverse cities in the United States. I went to Our Lady of Lourdes Academy. Many of my classmates were Cuban; their families had fled Castro’s dictatorship. I went to high school with Spanish being spoken in the hallways and “Feliz Navidad” sung at Christmas. I studied with my Cuban girlfriends at lunchtime. They helped me go from a straight C student to being on the Honor Roll as a freshman. My high school experience was richer, interesting and indeed, more educational because of diversity.

The definition of equity is “the quality of being fair, especially in a way that takes account of and seeks to address existing inequalities.” Doesn’t our Declaration of Independence state that “... all men are created equal…?”

Gina Guilford,

Miami

Power of the purse

Abolishing property taxes sounds liberating. No more paying perpetual rent to the government just to keep your home. However, we need to confront a deeper issue: representation.

Florida has nearly 23 million residents and just 120 House members and 40 Senators. That means one state representative speaks for about 190,000 people; one state senator represents nearly 575,000. That is not a citizen legislature. It is centralized management.

When fiscal power centralizes, representation must expand.

New Hampshire, with 1.4 million residents, has 400 House members. Each representative speaks for roughly 3,500 people. Floridians deserve more access, smaller districts and lawmakers who are neighbors instead of distant political brands. “No taxation without representation” still matters.

If Tallahassee wants more control over our tax dollars, it must expand legislative representation accordingly. Otherwise, South Florida, having been long underrepresented despite driving the state’s economy, should reconsider whether it is better served as its own state.

Hector Roos,

chair,

Libertarian Party of Miami-Dade County,

Kendall

More than words

Am I the only Herald reader who thinks that spelling bees are worthless endeavors?

To achieve a high level of proficiency, kids must spend countless hours memorizing the spelling of words. Perhaps they could instead use that time to learn meaningfully useful skills or subjects like mathematics, music, art, dance, programming, cooking, reading, writing, etc.

You want the kids to improve their spelling? Give them a dictionary.

Leo Bueno,

Coral Gables

Budgeting win

If we want to reduce the nation’s budget imbalance, why not take the billions we are spending on ICE and detention centers and use that money to hire immigration lawyers to process some of the thousands of backlogged cases?

That way, people who have been here for decades and are still trying to get green cards can return to work and pay taxes after processing. Those who actually are criminals and must be removed can return to their home countries.

We need our immigrant workers. This is a win-win.

Nanci Mitchell,

Miami

Language law

When I was 14 and about to enter high school in New York City, I intended to declare French as my foreign-language requirement. My father insisted I take Spanish instead. “It’s the language of the future,” he said.

Indeed!

Little did I know that my entire adult life would be spent in South Florida. And how grateful I am for that paternal advice in 1957. I further studied Spanish at the University of Miami as an undergraduate and later, after my retirement, at Florida International University through the OLLI life-learning program.

When Bad Bunny was announced as the Super Bowl halftime show, I wasn’t troubled at all. Surely, I’d understand the lyrics. Not!

Still, the many reviews and even ongoing letters to the editor, positive and negative, broadened my understanding of the performance. Which brings me to the short-sighted efforts to restrict driver license tests to English-only: weren’t we here before?

The new Miami-Dade Justice Center was dedicated recently to the late Osvaldo Soto, for his efforts to make Miami an inclusive community. He championed the undoing of the 1980 English-only ordinance. He’d be rolling over now!

Norma A. Orovitz,

Bay Harbor Islands

Valuable lessons

In the Feb. 22 Miami Herald Neighbors section, columnist Bea Hines explained what the circle of life taught her. It is a treasure that should be kept, framed and read and reread.

Dick Masington,

Coral Gables

Olympics alchemy

Magic is the art of creating a diversion. For the past two weeks, the Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina, Italy, provided a diversion that our world desperately needed.

The Olympics magic for a moment reminded us – through sport -- that the human experience is a collective one. We’re all in this together. That’s the true Olympics ethos.

Here’s an idea: make the Olympics required viewing so that its magic may rub off on all of us.

To Italia, gràzie for the diversion… I mean, magic.

Mark Diaz,

South Miami