To the editor: I am revolted by the photo of the grinning visitors flashing a thumbs up in front of President Trump’s monument to misery and inhumanity, the so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center (“Deportation flights from Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ detention center have begun, DeSantis says,” July 25). How did so many people become dismissive and uncaring about rights, both human and those enshrined in the Constitution of this formerly great country? Shame on us. This is happening on our watch.
Elizabeth Alexander, Ojai
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To the editor: In regard to the photo of a couple happily posing in front of the “Alligator Alcatraz” sign — I know the comparison is not completely fair, but I could not help but imagine what it would be like to see the same scene in the 1940s, with a happy couple in front of one of Germany’s concentration camps.
It is well documented that most people swept up in the immigration raids have no criminal convictions and that raids target businesses and churches; it is not about catching hardened criminals. It is also well documented that the Florida facility has insufficient, even inhumane (and I would suggest un-American) conditions, with a name and location purposefully chosen for harshness.
That people can go out of their way to proudly support a facility that isn’t up to the standards of a prison, designed as a holding pen for noncriminals picked up at Home Depot and your neighborhood church — this will be another shameful part of American history.
David Lynn, Simi Valley