The current administration is making good on one of President Trump’s campaign pledges to carry out mass deportations of foreign nationals residing in the U.S. without proper authorization. The Washington Post has reported that arrests increased from 45,558 to 94,906 in a year-over-year comparison between January 20 and June 11.
While many of those arrested have criminal records, 65% had no conviction, and 93% had no conviction for violence. The executive branch has an obligation to enforce immigration law and regulations, and any administration has the right to decide how best to use its limited resources to secure the border and remove those without authorization.
We are agnostic whether the administration’s apprehension strategy is appropriate or proportional.
However, the administration appears to forget the Golden Rule in law enforcement. Namely, when you arrest a suspect, you become responsible for their physical well-being, including safety, feeding, shelter, and medical care. Instead, the administration has opened a makeshift detainee facility dubbed the “Alligator Alcatraz” in the middle of the Florida Everglades. This former airport and training facility was not originally designed to house the 3,000 detainees it is expected to eventually hold for $411 per day, which comes to about $450 million per year.
The Hill reports that fresh water must be trucked in, mosquitoes run rampant, portable toilets routinely back up, and access to legal counsel is limited. The conditions are so rough that several guards have quit and have spoken out anonymously for fear of retaliation.
To further highlight the reported deplorable conditions, the Catholic bishops in charge of providing chaplains to the holding facility have complained that its remote location makes it hard to transport clergy to the detainees and have described the camp as “evil”.
The administration can do better than mosquito-infested makeshift jails built in a hurricane zone surrounded by alligators and pythons, and the Catholic Church can help. Higher education is experiencing a decline, and no sector is more impacted than rural private colleges. The root cause is a decline in the number of high school graduates due to lower birth rates, along with a decline in the percentage of high school graduates going straight to college, down from 70% in 2016 to 62% in 2022. Since 2020, 45 public or non-profit colleges have closed or announced their closures, and 37 have either merged or announced their mergers with other institutions. These institutions include the University of St. Katherine in California, Cabrini College in Pennsylvania, and schools in almost every state in between.
We recommend that the administration contract with the Catholic Church to use closed Catholic colleges to house detained migrants. Colleges are ideal for this situation because college campuses typically include dormitories, medical clinics, a cafeteria, a chapel, and classroom space, which can be turned into meeting rooms for attorneys and hearing rooms for immigration judges.
This arrangement would also be a financial boon for the Church. If the administration is willing to pay $450 million to house 3,000 migrants in a mosquito-infested swamp, then it should be willing to pay at least as much for quality facilities. The Church could then use these funds to offset the loss of income they once earned from resettling migrants on behalf of the Government. The detainees benefit by receiving higher-quality housing and services.
It would be a rare win for all involved.
If the administration is concerned that payment to the Church for use of these spaces might violate the Establishment Clause, consideration can be made for the use of failed private non-denominational campuses. For example, Cazenovia College in the Finger Lakes of upstate New York closed in December 2022. The New York State Police had been using the campus for training of two trooper classes but will vacate the space as of August 31, 2025. The campus, convenient to SUNY Upstate Medical Center and the Syracuse Airport, would logistically be far less challenging than the Everglades.
In addition, consideration can be given by the Administration for the use of underutilized military facilities, such as Fort Dix. Fort Dix (formally known as Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst) is already used by the Federal Bureau of Prisons to house federal inmates under lower levels of security. Doing so would greatly reduce expenditures for creating new infrastructure when existing facilities remain available.
In short, we believe that the Trump administration should pursue policies that increase efficiency and prudent use of fiscal resources to execute its apprehension strategy of those who remain in the United States without authorization. Substantial numbers of existing former colleges and military bases are available to provide locations for detention facilities, while allowing for better safety, feeding, shelter, medical care, and visits by legal and clergy representatives.
We urge the administration to consider these possibilities before constructing new facilities in remote or inaccessible areas, which will inevitably drive up the costs to the American taxpayer.
Dr. Robert Warren, Radford University
Dr. David Weber, Salisbury University
Dr. Timothy Fogarty, Case Western Reserve University
Dr. Vilson Dushi, Radford University
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If the facility is air-conditioned how is it mosquito infested?
I live a stones throw from an enormous swamp and while the mosquito population can be ridiculous outside that’s not the case indoors since my doors and windows stay closed when the AC is on.
If Alligator Alcratraz is open to the elements that’s a different proposition but it’s not what I’ve read.
(Our own state prison has no AC for inmates. )
No A/C? That’s harsh.
They are not migrants. They are illegal immigrants.
Two things that can be obtained at Alligator Alcatraz that are hard to come by on college campuses: the ability to lock people in and guard them securely, and quick & cheap cleanup and repair of the facilities that are not expected to be carefully taken care of by a stream of short-term inmates.
Quite apart from that, the bishops have not really said anything to indicate they would be willing to sign such a contract. Why was this repeatedly addressed to the Administration, and not once to the bishops/Catholic colleges?
Yes. Human beings should not be treated like dogs, even for the misdemeanour of irregular residency. All this cruelty just to distract attention from other issues and please part of the MAGA support base will only divide the US irreparably. Even after the headline-grabbing ICE raids, only 20,000 of those arrested within the US are being deported per month. At this rate, even President Baron Trump won’t finish the task. The real motive fore the anger about this misdemeanour is, of course, the Hispanic civilisation of most of those involved. But the hatred and cruelty of removing even a fraction of “illegals” will cost the US the loyalty of the 23% Hispanic population. Time to recognise officially that the country is, like Canada, a bi-lingual nation where two civilisations are present.
The Government has the right to deport illegal aliens. That said, they should be treated humanely. All this talk of throwing them to the alligators is hardly Christian and should stop.
Now they’re being called “DETAINEES”. What nonsense. Why don’t we refer to those who have broken the law and have entered the USA ILLEGALLY, exactly who they are instead of using euphemisms? I don’t know if we’re being red-pilled or blue-pilled but I do know that the Average American is being taken for a dolt.
“This arrangement would also be a financial boon for the Church…to offset the loss of income they once earned from resettling migrants on behalf of the government.”
The NGO-cult appealing for revenues, to continue to get paid to “resettle” illegal immigrants where its paymaster, the Democrat National Committee, needs to have them located, for voter fraud operations.
Rubbish, the author is simply seeking a federally funded revenue stream besides non of these illegal appeared before an Immigration Judge for due process under the law which is grounds for deportation.
Check out prisons in the US. No air conditioning, Guards bring in contraband, hard to get a priest to visit, toilet facilities without privacy and nothing to do that helps a criminal change his life. Wake up!
Also:
The 2nd paragraph seems to unintentionally hint at the uncomfortable problem the professors encountered in trying to frame their case:
– virtually all of the illegal immigrants imprisoned in this location “have been charged” with serious felony crimes; and
– a very high percentage are charged with violent crimes, and they just haven’t been put on trial and convicted…yet.
Which indicates the sinister motives of those in the former administration and Congress (of “our devout Catholic” ex-president Biden), who together made sure that their federal budgets de-funded ICE, crippling the agency that exists for the main purpose of adjudicating the cases of illegal immigrants, which defunding revealed the ultimate motive, that the mass flood of illegal immigration orchestrated by the “the Biden administration” in concert with its congresses was designed to ensure that virtually none of the illegal immigrants of 2020-24 would ever have their cases adjudicated, and that none of those charged with serious and violent felonies would ever be brought to justice.
The above making the recommendations of the authors seem rather tainted.
I found the following information on the internet to be interesting:
The Vatican has recently increased penalties for illegal entry into its territory, including fines and potential prison sentences. Specifically, unauthorized entry can result in fines between €10,000 and €25,000 (approximately $10,200 to $25,700 USD) and prison sentences of one to four years. Repeat offenders or those using violence or deception to enter may face harsher penalties.
The Vatican has very few prison cells and relies on Italian prisons to house most individuals convicted of crimes within its territory.
Italian prisons are generally characterized by overcrowding, understaffing, and poor conditions.