Editorial: A tour of depravity in the Everglades
It is an armed camp where thousands of immigrants targeted as undesirables will be confined, possibly without hearings, under the brutal conditions of a swamp in the Everglades in a place most Floridians have never heard of, called Ochopee.
It wasn't the construction of 'Alligator Alcatraz' that brought the president to the camp.
It's not Florida's fast-tracking of construction that's entrancing right-wing media, breathing new life into DeSantis's national political dreams, and boosting Uthmeier's reelection profile.
It is the savagery.
The headline-grabbing power of 'Alligator Alcatraz' lies entirely in the imagery of brown people getting out of line and being ripped bloody by alligators or suffocated by snakes.
Strip out the celebration of suffering and grotesque inhumanity and it's just a row of tents in the middle of nowhere.
This is one more scar on land that environmentalists are waging a decades-long battle to save.
It's just one more insult to the Miccosukee Tribe, which called it home long before Uthmeier embraced it as a stepping-stone to his election campaign.
The imagined torment of immigrants at this camp is not a glitch. It's the main selling point.
This distinguishes it from World War II's horrific internment of families and orphans of Japanese descent in tar-paper shacks, because they were of the wrong ethnicity at the wrong time. Even President Franklin D. Roosevelt called them concentration camps.
But FDR didn't hawk T-shirts emblazoned with images suggesting gruesome deaths or show AI-generated images of alligators in ICE hats. The Republican Party of Florida did. So did the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The World War II White House did not mark the opening of an internment camp by breathlessly reporting a ravenous cannibal detainee said to be eating himself while in federal custody on a deportation flight. DHS did.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and internment cheerleaders want you to believe that comparisons to other inhumane camps is hysterical hyperbole, as if the cynical marketing of Alligator Alcatraz is not.
In a particularly vivid example of his trademark cluelessness, DeSantis rebuffed criticism of inhumane conditions by pointing out the new camp's showers.
Of course it is inhumane. Of course Trump, DeSantis, Noem and Uthmeier will deny bathing in the specter of savagery, even as Trump's GOP raised money off it, while sidestepping their role in likely deaths that will have much less soundbite potential.
As Floridians know so well, heat is among the deadliest of weather events. High humidity prevents the body from cooling. Combined, the two are lethal.
The detention camp will place thousands of immigrants in wire cages in a humidity-intense swamp that is all but inaccessible to hospital ambulances, and where the summertime heat index can soar above 100 degrees.
Evacuating in advance of severe storms presents its own dangers, especially as it does not take a hurricane to flood a swamp or the two-lane road running next to it.
Last week, when a typical summer shower dumped less than two inches of rain during the opening tour, water seeped through the edges of buildings, walls shook and water spread across electrical cables, Spectrum News video showed.
On Wednesday, forecasters upped the odds of a major windstorm moving across Florida.
Environmentalists are suing to stop construction, but Trump has even bigger plans for detention.
It's wishful thinking to believe South Florida's immigrant communities within driving distance of Alligator Alcatraz will be exempted, regardless of citizenship status.
Trump made clear during Tuesday's tour that naturalized U.S. citizens — who live in so many communities in Central Florida — may be next to face detention and deportation.
'I think we ought to get them the hell out of here, too, if you want to know the truth,' Trump told reporters. 'So maybe that will be the next job.'
The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board includes Executive Editor Roger Simmons, Opinion Editor Krys Fluker and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant, Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney and editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman. Send letters to insight@orlandosentinel.com.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NBC News
an hour ago
- NBC News
New tariffs snap into effect, raising import taxes to highest level since Great Depression
After months of delays and extensions, President Donald Trump 's comprehensive and sweeping tariffs slate took effect Thursday just after midnight, shifting his global trade reset into high gear. Most imports into the United States will now face a baseline 10% duty, with the overall average effective tariff rate rising to more than 17% — the highest since 1935, during the Great Depression — thanks to higher duties on some of the biggest U.S. trading partners, according to the nonpartisan Yale Budget Lab think tank. A wide variety of products will be hit. Tariffs will be collected on everything from European Union appliances and Japanese cars to food, furniture and toys from China and TVs from South Korea. Selected oil and gas imports, along with some smartphones and a suite of goods covered by a pre-existing trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, are not affected. Together, the duties are the most significant move yet by a president set on tilting the global economy even more in favor of the United States. So far, the salvos have just begun to jostle the U.S. economy, instead. Tariffs, which are taxes on imports collected by the federal government, generally tend to raise costs, although there is some debate among economists about whether businesses or consumers ultimately bear the weight of those increased prices. Yale's Budget Lab calculates that the inflationary effect of tariffs will cost a typical household an average of as much as $2,400 this year. It forecasts one of the biggest impacts in clothing, with consumers facing 40% higher prices for shoes and 38% higher costs for apparel in the short run as retailers that rely on importing clothes from South and Southeast Asia shift supply chains or grapple with higher costs. Thursday is not the end of Trump's trade offensive, either. Trump told CNBC on Tuesday he still plans to impose import taxes on pharmaceutical products and semiconductors. Currently, only about a quarter of manufacturing facilities supplying the United States with key drug ingredients are actually based here, equating to a $116 billion deficit with the rest of the world. As for semiconductors, the United States imports $40 billion worth, though the figure can also include chips produced in the United States, shipped abroad and repackaged inside finished goods. Trump has also shown continued willingness to ratchet up duty levels at a moment's notice. On Wednesday, he hiked the tariff rate for India to 50% over the nation's purchases of Russian oil, which he said was allowing Russia to continue to finance its war in Ukraine. Brazil, too, now faces 50% duties as a result of Trump's displeasure with its treatment of former President Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump ally who has been detained on coup charges. Trump also told CNBC he could raise the European Union's tariff level to 35% from 15% if it reneges on an investment commitment. Taken together, the 27-nation bloc is the largest U.S. trading partner. The Trump administration continues to insist tariffs are working, pointing to billions raised in new monthly revenues for the U.S. government. The White House also notes that nations have pledged hundreds of billions of dollars in investments, though no details about how that money will be spent have been released. Stock indexes have also set all-time highs. 'The markets have seen what we're doing and celebrated,' Kevin Hassett, director of Trump's National Economic Council, said Sunday on NBC News' 'Meet the Press.' Market analysts say those gains have been largely driven by tech and bets on artificial intelligence, offsetting growing signs of weakness elsewhere, like a slowing labor market and softer consumer spending. Overall, the U.S. economy as a whole now appears to be on much shakier ground than at the start of the year. Price growth has continued to pick up, while employment growth in manufacturing — the sector Trump and his allies have said would benefit most from the tariffs — has flatlined. Some of that may also be attributable to elevated interest rates. But even non-manufacturing sectors are feeling the pinch. Comments cited in the Institute for Supply Chain Management's survey of service-providing businesses for July, released this week, were filled with concerns about tariffs. 'Anticipation of the final tariff impacts is resulting in delayed planning for next fiscal year purchases,' an accommodation and food-services firm said. A health services firm said: 'Tariffs are causing additional costs as we continue to purchase equipment and supplies. Though we need to continue with these purchases, the cost is significant enough that we are postponing other projects to accommodate these cost changes.' The U.S. unemployment rate has held steady at 4.2%, still considered low — but most economists say that is partly a function of Trump's immigration crackdown, which has shrunk the overall labor force. The unemployment rate among native-born Americans reached a pandemic-era high last month of 4.7%. Business leaders are shaken up, too. Gartner Research said this week that its measure of CEO confidence has fallen at one of the fastest paces ever to recessionary levels, with 78% of top executives indicating they're implementing cost-cutting measures to safeguard performance. On Tuesday, equipment manufacturers Caterpillar and Eaton both reported significant profit hits from tariffs that constrained financial results amid resilient demand. 'With the prospect of higher tariffs, many companies implemented strong cost saving measures,' Gartner said. 'Even companies not directly impacted by tariffs began implementing these measures.' There remains an outside chance that the courts will strike the tariffs down. A group of small businesses has sued the Trump administration challenging its authority to impose tariffs under emergency powers. A trade court agreed in late May, but Trump's lawyers obtained an injunction to keep the tariffs he'd already imposed in effect. All of Trump's tariffs on individual trading partners have been deployed using the law, which faces additional challenges from other suits. Tariffs he has imposed on specific goods, like steel and copper, have been issued under a separate authority. In April, a bipartisan group of senators passed a bill to assert Congress' authority as the only body allowed to impose tariffs, but the measure stalled in the House. A growing chorus of analysts is raising the prospect of stagflationary conditions, in which price growth increases while the job market weakens. 'Economic activity and job growth are sputtering under the weight of higher tariffs, increasing inflation and rising economic policy and trade uncertainty,' analysts with BMO said in a recent note to clients. As higher tariff rates continue to creep up, stagflation and even a recession become likelier, Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, told NBC News last week. 'I think the economic fallout from the tariffs is now obvious: higher inflation and a struggling economy,' he said.
CNBC
2 hours ago
- CNBC
Sony hikes annual profit forecast by 4%, citing smaller trade war impact
Sony raised its full-year operating profit forecast Thursday by 4% to 1.33 trillion yen ($9.01 billion), citing a diminished impact from U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war. In May, Sony forecast a profit of 1.28 trillion yen, factoring in a 100 billion yen hit from the tariffs. The Japanese conglomerate has transformed from a maker of household electronics such as the Walkman to an entertainment behemoth spanning games, movies, music and chips. Sony reported a 36.5% rise in operating profit to 340 billion yen for the April-June quarter, beating an estimate of 288 billion yen from eight analysts surveyed by LSEG.
Los Angeles Times
3 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
TV Superman Dean Cain is recruiting immigration agents and, thanks to DHS, so is ‘South Park'
Dean Cain played a superhero on TV 30 years ago. Now he wants to help the government in its illegal sweeps of Home Depot parking lots, schools and bus benches for people who appear to be immigrants. Cain played Superman in the 1990s TV series 'Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.' On Tuesday, he encouraged his Instagram followers to apply for a job within the ranks of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE. 'Here's your opportunity to join ICE,' he told followers in a video.'You can earn lots of great benefits and pay. Since President Trump took office, ICE has arrested hundreds of thousands of criminals including terrorists, rapists, murderers, pedophiles, MS-13 gang members, drug traffickers, you name it — very dangerous people who are no longer on the streets.' Clearly, Cain is still fighting fantasy villains because nonpublic data from ICE indicate that the government is primarily detaining individuals with no criminal convictions of any kind. Of the 200,000 people detained by ICE since October 2024, 65% have never committed a crime, and 93% haven't committed a violent crime. But he wasn't the only player from series TV to end up in a recruitment post for the Department of Homeland Security. On its X account, the DHS pulled an image from a 'South Park' teaser for the show's forthcoming episode 'Got a Nut.' It showed masked men riding in black cars marked 'ICE.' The DHS added its own caption: ' The show's last episode, 'Sermon on the Mount,' mercilessly lampooned the president's manhood and penchant for vengeance-driven lawsuits. Trump responded by calling the animated comedy 'irrelevant,' though its searing indictment of the president represented the show's highest-rated season opener since 1999. Paramount Global reported that viewership was up 68% from the previous 'South Park' season premiere and was the top show across cable on July 23. The episode reached nearly 6 million viewers across Paramount+ and Comedy Central platforms in the three days after it aired. A 20-second teaser of Wednesday's 'Got a Nut' episode shows Trump at a dinner event with Satan. As Trump's courage is heralded by an off-screen speaker, the president rubs Satan's leg under the table. Satan tells him to stop. Even the devil is disgusted. It also appears 'South Park' will be focused on ICE recruitment or, rather, the absurdity of the administration's public call to arms. 'When Mr. Mackey loses his job, he desperately tries to find a new way to make a living,' reads the caption about 'Got a Nut' on 'South Park's' X account. It's accompanied by a screenshot of the oft-misguided former school counselor Mackey looking out of sorts in a face mask and ICE vest. He stands near a characterization of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who vamps in ICE gear and points a pistol in the air. On Tuesday, 'South Park' responded via X to the DHS usage of an image from the forthcoming episode. 'Wait, so we ARE relevant?' followed by a hashtag we can't reprint here. Satire around MAGA's inhumane immigration policy has ramped up after the Trump administration launched an ICE hiring campaign, promising a $50,000 signing bonus and retirement benefits. 'Your country is calling you to serve at ICE,' said Noem in a news release last week. 'Your country needs dedicated men and women of ICE to get the worst of the worst criminals out of our country. This is a defining moment in our nation's history. Your skills, your experience, and your courage have never been more essential. Together, we must defend the homeland.' Cain's signature show has been off the air as many years as 'South Park' has been on, but Tuesday he decided it was time to slip on the virtual unitard one more time, imagining himself a superhero as he took to social media and said: 'For those who don't know, I am a sworn law enforcement officer, as well as being a filmmaker, and I felt it was important to join with our first responders to help secure the safety of all Americans, not just talk about it. So I joined up,' said the 59-year-old. A follower replied: 'Unfortunately, you can't join ICE if you're over 37 years of age — even if you're a fully licensed state law enforcement officer.' Cain replied: 'Perhaps we'll get the changed…' Mere hours passed, then viola! Noem announced during an appearance on Fox News that ICE's hiring age cap had been eliminated. And faster than a speeding rubber bullet fired at an ICE protester, Superman extended the dream of state-sanctioned kidnapping to the young and old.
