MIAMI SHORES, Fla. – Miami’s top Catholic leader is speaking out about the state’s “Alligator Alcatraz” migrant detention center, calling it alarming and “intentionally provocative.”
Archbishop Thomas Wenski condemned the facility Friday, one day before Florida lawmakers are set to tour it for the first time.
“There is a lot that is not right with that center,” Wenski said. “It is never good to take pleasure in another person’s pain,” he adds.
Wenski is weighing in on what he views as “intentionally provocative” rhetoric that is “corrosive of the common good” around “Alligator Alcatraz,” the mass detention center of tents and trailers along an aging airstrip in the Everglades.
“Elected officials and civic leaders making light of the misery or the pain of the detainees there, guarded by alligators and all that, so that is unseemly,” he states. “We need the workforce that these immigrants are providing for us today in agriculture and hospitality.”
Wenski emphasizes it is not about being overly sensitive “because of woke-ism and all that,” but rather about practicing common decency.
“In polite company, we don’t make fun of people,” he said. “If someone trips and falls down, you don’t laugh. If you laugh, it says more about you than about the person who falls down.”
He added, “We all want to make America great again, but you don’t make America great by making America mean.”
“People are very polarized and this polarization gives space to outrage, and people on social media will feed outrage for engagement and clicks,” Wenski said. “In our political discussion, we might agree or disagree, but we should seek solutions and light, not just heat. I think Congress should step up and fix some of the broken system that we have so it becomes a more humane and more human.”
Wenski also released a statement on the matter:
“Common decency requires that we remember the individuals being detained are fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters of distressed relatives. We wish to ensure that chaplains and pastoral ministers can serve those in custody, to their benefit and that of the staff. We also raise concerns about the isolation of the detention facility, which is far from medical care centers, and the precariousness of the temporary “tent” structures in the Florida heat and summer thunderstorms, not to mention the challenge of safely protecting detainees in the event of a hurricane.”
Archbishop Thomas Wenski
The Department of Homeland Security tells Local 10 News the facility will cost Florida taxpayers approximately $450 million a year, which will largely be funded by FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program.
Wenski says this is the time for Congress to step up and come up with humane solutions to the nation’s complex immigration system. He would also like to see the state of Florida allow priests and pastors to pray with the detainees.
Local 10 News contacted spokespeople for the Florida attorney general and state emergency management office seeking comment and had not heard back as of Friday evening.