From Patria y Vida to Alligator Alcatraz: How Trump’s immigration plans harm us all | Opinion

Four years ago, Cubans shouted “Patria y Vida” in defiance of tyranny. Some of those freedom fighters now languish in ICE detention cells, detained by the very country that once stood as a beacon of hope.

Trump’s immigration crackdown has mutated — no longer just targeting undocumented individuals, it now ensnares legal residents and naturalized citizens. Through aggressive denaturalization efforts, U.S. citizens could lose their status over vague and retroactive justifications. This isn’t enforcement of the law. It’s an erosion of who we are as a nation.

Now, in the heart of the Florida Everglades, a new symbol of this erosion rises: Alligator Alcatraz.

Rushed into existence by the DeSantis administration under “emergency powers,” this detention facility suspended laws around law enforcement training, truck safety and even permitting for toilets. At a price tag of $450 million for 5,000 detainees, the projected cost is $90,000 per person annually.

However, newly leaked documents show the cost could exceed $600 million. What are we paying for? Who are we paying? This has nothing to do with our safety. It’s a violation of the most basic human rights.

Reports from inside are chilling: lack of attorney access, extreme temperatures, non-functioning toilets and severely limited hygiene provisions. Detainees describe being treated “like rats in an experiment,” with maggot-ridden food and confiscated Bibles.

Meanwhile, Congress’s “Big Beautiful Bill” has made ICE the most generously funded federal law enforcement agency. Over the next four years, ICE will receive more annual funding than the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Marshals and the Bureau of Prisons combined. The goal? 3,000 arrests per day.

In the rush to criminalize brown bodies and politicize fear, we are witnessing racial profiling on a scale unseen since Jim Crow — detaining freedom fighters, building camps in the Everglades and even stripping citizenship from Americans.

Let that sink in.

Put aside partisanship for just a moment. Ask yourself: Is this who we are? Is this how we treat people in our custody?

If Patria y Vida meant anything, it meant honoring the courage to speak up against injustice. That promise must not die in a swamp surrounded by barbed wire and alligators.

If we stay silent, we become complicit.

Let’s honor the legacy of Patria y Vida by standing up for those who still stand for freedom — on our soil and beyond.

Annette Taddeo is a former state senator from Miami-Dade County. She was the first Latina Democrat elected to the Florida Senate.