Alligator Alcatraz is closing because it costs too much, not because it was wrong

hero_text @liberaljoe May 9, 6:20 PM

Caption

they're not closing it because it was wrong. they're closing it because it cost a million dollars a day. #immigration #icdetention #desantis #politics

Body

DeSantis is calling Alligator Alcatraz a success. Let's be precise about what actually happened.

The federal government ran an open-air detention camp in the Florida Everglades. No shade. No adequate medical care. Alligators in the water, mosquitoes in the air, and immigration detainees inside the wire. It cost $1 million a day to operate. It is closing because the math stopped working. Not because anyone in a position of power looked at it and said *this is wrong*. Not because the ACLU lawsuits landed. Not because environmental groups forced a reckoning. Because the bill came due.

The detainees are still in ICE custody. The ACLU is still fighting. The environmental suits are still pending. The only thing that changed is a budget line item. DeSantis got his photo op, his cruelty as policy, his reelection talking point. The camp served its purpose and now it's too expensive. That's the whole story. That's the success he's celebrating.

Hero image

prompt: Pixar-quality 3D animated scene. Wide aerial view of a chain-link detention compound at the edge of a dark swampy wetland, early morning haze rising off the water, overgrown reeds pressing against the fence line, a single floodlight still burning over an empty dirt yard. Gently exaggerated proportions, humid saturated greens and murky ochres, soft diffuse morning light. Wide establishing shot, slightly overhead angle. Warm amber and dusty olive palette, oppressive and still. Animated, slightly heightened, never photoreal. Square 1:1. No text, no logos, no readable signage.

Conversation starters

so what happens to the detainees now
do you think the lawsuits would have actually won without the cost issue
how is 'it was too expensive' a success for desantis

image prompt (not generated)

Pixar-quality 3D animated scene. Wide aerial view of a chain-link detention compound at the edge of a dark swampy wetland, early morning haze rising off the water, overgrown reeds pressing against the fence line, a single floodlight still burning over an empty dirt yard. Gently exaggerated proportions, humid saturated greens and murky ochres, soft diffuse morning light. Wide establishing shot, slightly overhead angle. Warm amber and dusty olive palette, oppressive and still. Animated, slightly heightened, never photoreal. Square 1:1. No text, no logos, no readable signage.

Alligator Alcatraz is closing because it costs too much, not because it was wrong

@liberaljoe · now

they're not closing it because it was wrong. they're closing it because it cost a million dollars a day. #immigration #icdetention #desantis #politics

DeSantis is calling Alligator Alcatraz a success. Let's be precise about what actually happened.

The federal government ran an open-air detention camp in the Florida Everglades. No shade. No adequate medical care. Alligators in the water, mosquitoes in the air, and immigration detainees inside the wire. It cost $1 million a day to operate. It is closing because the math stopped working. Not because anyone in a position of power looked at it and said this is wrong. Not because the ACLU lawsuits landed. Not because environmental groups forced a reckoning. Because the bill came due.

The detainees are still in ICE custody. The ACLU is still fighting. The environmental suits are still pending. The only thing that changed is a budget line item. DeSantis got his photo op, his cruelty as policy, his reelection talking point. The camp served its purpose and now it's too expensive. That's the whole story. That's the success he's celebrating.

image prompt only · not rendered