If you’re looking to show your support for a prison facility that experts say is a “human rights disaster waiting to happen,” you’re in luck: The newest migrant detention center in Florida has a cutesy name and a variety of official merch, including beer koozies.
Before President Donald Trump and his coterie last week toured what they’ve cruelly dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” ― a 5,000-bed facility, located at an abandoned airfield in the remote Everglades wetlands ― the Florida GOP was already fundraising off the hastily constructed detention center.
On Facebook and in an email to supporters sent on June 27, the Republican Party of Florida hawked graphic tees, beer koozies and hats emblazoned with the nickname of a jail they say will be “gator guarded” and “python-patrolled.” (The first detainees arrived last week at the site, which was constructed in a matter of weeks by the Florida state government with backing from the Department of Homeland Security.)
“Surrounded by miles of swamp and bloodthirsty wildlife, this ain’t no vacation spot. It’s a one-way ticket to regret for criminals who’ll wish they’d self-deported,” the merch post on Facebook read. “Every shirt, hat, or koozie you grab funds our push to keep Florida tough on crime and tougher on borders.”
