Ron DeSantis says ‘illegals’ can skip Alligator Alcatraz by leaving country on the spot

Gov. Ron DeSantis says undocumented immigrants have an alternative to lockdown in the Everglades: They can leave Florida willingly.

And the one-way flight from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is free.

“When you’re brought into Alligator Alcatraz as an illegal alien, the first thing that they do, DHS offers you an ability to take a flight back to your home country at federal expense, so nobody actually has to go to Alligator Alcatraz. The illegals are given the right to simply self-deport, not even at their expense,” DeSantis told Newsmax.

“That is the first thing that happens there. You don’t hear a lot about that. Obviously, the detainees, the illegals that end up inside the processing center, they have rejected that offer to go back to their home country.”

The Governor’s position sidesteps the contention of many of the detained that they should have due process, one expressed this week in a suit led by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) that alleges, among other things, that the people detained at the converted airport on the edge of the Everglades lack access to their lawyers.

The ACLU, ACLU of Florida and Americans for Immigrant Justice are working with inmates at the an immigrant detainment facility and other groups representing them, including Florida Keys Immigration, Sanctuary of the South, U.S. Immigration Law Counsel, Victoria Slatton of Sanabria & Associates, and the Law Offices of Catherine Perez, PLLC.

DeSantis addressed concerns about food during Thursday’s interview, saying complaints “about the shade of a color of a piece of turkey or something” served to inmates were misplaced, and that the food was the “same food as all the employees get.”

According to the lawsuit, “detained people were told that they are only allowed one meal a day (and given only minutes to eat).”