Alligator Alcatraz has become a symbol of cruelty in U.S. immigration enforcement. The camp, built from repurposed airport grounds and costing taxpayers nearly $245 million, is now slated for closure after a federal judge ruled it violated environmental laws. But even as the state scrambles to empty it, reports continue to emerge from inside its walls, reports that speak to brutality, suffering, and a shocking disregard for human dignity.

According to multiple detainees who contacted Miami’s Noticias 23, guards at Alligator Alcatraz unleashed tear gas and batons after a grieving man,learning of a relative’s death, cried out for freedom. Others joined in, and what followed, detainees say, was a violent crackdown.

“They’ve beaten everyone here, a lot of people have bled. Brother, teargas. We are immigrants, we are not criminals, we are not murderers,” one man pleaded in a phone call.

The detainees described alarms blaring and helicopters circling overhead as the assault unfolded. Official denials came swiftly. Florida’s Division of Emergency Management dismissed the allegations as “manufactured,” claiming that detainees are kept in “clean, safe living conditions.” But human rights advocates say the accounts are consistent with other reports of hunger strikes, retaliatory transfers, and routine abuse.

Conditions inside Alligator Alcatraz have long been condemned. Migrants were housed in metal cages, exposed to suffocating heat, and deprived of basic medical care. The cruelty was not incidental but was celebrated. Both President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis toured the site with pride when it opened, framing its harshness as a deterrent, demonstrating the kind of moral pigs they are.

For the Trump administration and MAGA adherents, the facility was meant to be a model prison, reflecting their preferred method of dealing with immigrants. This display of inhumanity demonstrates the huge erosure of values under Trump's leadership. Now, this obviously inhumane, Nazi-like facility is threatened with court-ordered closure.

The State of Florida is not alone in reflecting brutality, callousness and sadism in dealing with fellow humans. Across the country, states are embracing immigration detention with a disturbingly cavalier attitude. New facilities are being christened with names that mock and dehumanize those inside, like Indiana’s “Speedway Slammer,” Nebraska’s “Cornhusker Clink,” and DeSantis’s own proposed “Deportation Depot” in north Florida.

These names are not accidental. They reflect an official culture that strips migrants of humanity, turning suffering into spectacle. Each nickname is a reminder that cruelty is not a byproduct of policy, it is the point.

The United States has long claimed to be a beacon of liberty, a nation built by immigrants, guided by principles of human rights and dignity. Yet facilities like Alligator Alcatraz and the casual brutality they represent ask a sobering question: is this truly who we are?

When detainees cry out that they are “immigrants, not criminals,” when reports surface of beatings and tear gas inside cages, when hunger strikes are met not with reform but with transfers designed to break resistance, what does that say about our national values?

The closing of Alligator Alcatraz is not the end of the story. It is a reminder of how far we have drifted from compassion, and a test of whether the nation will continue to embrace policies that rely on cruelty as a tool of governance.

Is this the America we want? Really?