Archbishop Thomas Wenski of the Archdiocese of Miami and 25 Knights of Columbus who call themselves “Knights on Bikes” rode to Trump’s Florida concentration camp, “Alligator Alcatraz.” Once they got there, they stood at the gate and prayed the Rosary together.
In my humble opinion, that is exactly what faithful Catholics should be doing every time Trump’s gestapo sticks their evil heads up. I think we should pray the Rosary in the hallway when they go into courtrooms to arrest law-abiding people. I think that demonstrators against these mass displays of armed force against civilians than have been happening in so-called “blue” states should pray the Rosary.
I mean it. We prayed in front of abortion clinics. Let’s pray in front of concentration camps and Trump’s ICE gestapo. Let’s go down on our knees and pray to the Lord Jesus and His Mother, right in front of these vicious cowards hiding behind their masks and guns.
Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” enriched America’s billionaires, tripled the deficit and cut the things ordinary Americans need to live ranging for health care, to FEMA aid after catastrophes. In addition to making America’s billionaires — who are already rich beyond the dreams of avarice — even richer, the bill took money away from governing this country properly to expand ICE into Trump’s private army. Thanks to the big, not-so-beautiful bill, ICE will now be larger than most of the world’s militaries.
Trump’s gestapo is going to be an army of heavily-armed, masked monsters. ICE will be his private army, an army ruled by one man’s whims that obeys no law, answers to no court and if free to ignore the Constitution.
They have already shown that they feel free to arrest anyone from toddlers to grannys without charging them with a crime, allowing them to see an attorney or even allowing them to notify their families where they are being kept. They arrest American citizens, right along with everyone else. It is accurate to say that the people they arrest are being “disappeared.” Their families can’t find out where they are or what has happened to them.
I read about an 82-year-old man with diabates, high blood pressure, and a heart condition, who was swept up by ICE. ICE subsequently told his family that he had died in their prison. Later, his family learned he had been shipped to Venezuela.
We’ve seen a lot of movies about Nazi Germany. I suspect most of us identified with the people who helped the victims. We all like to think that if “it happened here” we would be one of those who hid Anne Frank in our attic. We wouldn’t be one of the ones who closed our eyes and let it happen. We certainly wouldn’t be the one who turned Anne Frank’s family in to the Gestapo.
Well my friends, it is happening here. The question is, what are you going to do about it?
From America Magazine:
Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami and some 25 Knights of Columbus saddled up their motorcycles to pray a rosary at the entrance of Alligator Alcatraz, the controversial migrant detention center recently opened in the Florida Everglades.
The archbishop posted images of the July 20 gathering to his X account, saying that he and his fellow riders — members of the Knights of Columbus’ Knights on Bikes International fraternal organization — “stopped at the entrance of Alligator Alcatraz and prayed a rosary for the detainees.”
Images shared by the archbishop showed the men standing in a circle, bikes parked and heads bowed in prayer, with the Knights of Columbus logo and a cross prominently stitched on the back of their vests.
In his post, Archbishop Wenski noted that the Archdiocese of Miami “is still waiting for approval to access” Alligator Alcatraz “to provide Mass for detainees.”
According to a recent report by organizations affiliated with Catholic and evangelical Christian churches, Christians account for approximately 80% of all of those at risk of deportation. The Christians most at risk of deportation are Catholics, 61% of the total.
Alligator Alcatraz, located some 55 miles from downtown Miami at the Dade Collier Training and Transition Airport, consists of tents with groups of bunk beds in cage-like units of chain-link fencing, and exposed communal toilets.
Water, sewage management, power and air conditioning are supplied by portable units, according to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The facility, estimated to hold 3,000 people, has plans to be expanded to accommodate 5,000.
Alligator Alcatraz has drawn condemnation from clergy and Democratic lawmakers alike for its conditions and location — with Trump, Homeland Security Security Kristi Noem and DeSantis, a Catholic, touting the hostile environment as a security feature and immigration deterrent during their July 1 tour inaugurating the opening of the facility.
“It basically is in a swamp,” Archbishop Wenski told OSV News in a July 15 interview. “There are numerous alligators and pythons (and) boa constrictors, and tons and tons of mosquitoes.”
The tarmac on which the tents have been built “becomes even hotter because it’s reflecting the heat of the day,” he said.
Detainees have told The New York Times that the frequent rains have created leaks and insect intrusions, while access to showers, full meals and medication is limited. Illness, sleep deprivation and unrest is also in evidence, they said.
NBC 6 South Florida reported that from July 1-18, there were 34 emergency calls to 911 from Alligator Alcatraz, an average of two per day.
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