During Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” NBC News homeland security correspondent Julia Ainsley lamented the potential plight of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees housed at the so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” in Ochopee, FL who may attempt escape.
Ainsley spoke of the potential for “real injuries” for those who might attempt to escape.
“In the first Trump administration, Willie, this was a joke,” the NBC correspondent said. “In fact, in the book ‘Border Wars’ by Michael Shear, they write about how Trump wanted a moat around a detention center, and he wanted to use the Rio Grande, and he wanted alligators to be able to keep people from crossing into Texas. In this case, it’s actually a reality. And so it’s right, it almost started as a joke, but now it’s this deterrent, and it’s really a place where these people could be. And when Gabe walked through there, that was soft-sided facilities. So not brick and mortar buildings. It’s clearly intentionally being put there really as a symbolic form of deterrence, but possibly a real one too, if there were really injuries to people.”
Ainsley continued, “The other thing I would say about this, Willie, is that ICE is not supposed to be punitive. Immigration detention is not supposed to be punitive. That is still on their website. That is mandated through court orders. ICE detention is for the purpose of detaining immigrants before they are deported or while their immigration proceedings are still going on. And that is up to the discretion of ICE whether they should detain everyone during that process. But it is not supposed to be like you were sentenced to time in jail, like what you would have done if you had committed a crime and been sent to a Bureau of Prisons facility. And so they’re now deviating from that.”
(h/t Newsbusters)
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