Continued Operation of Alligator Alcatraz Imposes an Unacceptable Cost, Both Financial and Moral
May 7, 2026
Media Contact: The TASC Group
Email: workerscircle@thetascgroup.com, 347-901-9352
Upon reports that Florida lawmakers are in conversation with the federal government about closing Alligator Alcatraz because it is "too expensive," Noelle Damico, Director of Social Justice, responded with this statement:
Alligator Alcatraz is too expensive and its cost is both financial and moral.
The priorities of the DeSantis Administration and too many Florida lawmakers are clear. They are choosing the torture of immigrants “arrested for working” over public education for Florida’s children and natural disaster protection for Florida families. They are making every Florida tax-payer — citizen and immigrant alike — complicit in their corrupt, cruel scheme that is separating families, terrorizing communities, and undermining the rule of law.
For 40 weeks the Workers Circle has spearheaded a freedom vigil supported by many different organizations that has brought people of diverse backgrounds together to call for Alligator Alcatraz’s closure, to denounce the inhumane conditions, to insist on Constitutional rights for all and to end the vicious ICE abductions, detentions and deportations of our neighbors, family members, and friends. The freedom vigils will continue weekly as long as people are being detained at the facility in reprehensible conditions.
Alligator Alcatraz is immoral, inhumane and un-American. It is also a blueprint for detention across the nation. When this center is finally closed, our nation must end the replication of this model elsewhere and a full investigation must be undertaken into the corruption, abuse, and profiteering that has happened so that appropriate authorities are held accountable.
ABOUT THE WORKERS CIRCLE:
The Workers Circle is a national Jewish social justice organization founded by Eastern European immigrants who came to the United States fleeing autocracy and persecution and seeking democratic freedoms. That history drives the organization’s work today. Home to the grassroots power-building model of Democracy Circles, national freedom vigils, and the Talk to Your Sheriff program, the Workers Circle’s multigenerational activist community of 250,000+ people powers our strategic, non-partisan campaigns to empower voters, strengthen Constitutional rights, and demand the multiracial democracy we need.
