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Fringey Mini: Missing 411: the Alligator Alcatraz edition · Journey to the Fringe

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  I have a limited choice for you this week because
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  I have some things that I think would be good
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  to cover for the mini, but I've just, I've not
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  been saving them into my choice document, my
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  regular choice document. I've been saving it
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  into my notepad to transfer it into my document.
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  So I'm just going to choose one. Okay. Cause
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  all I'm hearing is excuses right now. So let's
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  just get past those. Yeah. Yeah. I probably shouldn't
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  have started with that, but here we are. So this
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  one's from boardpanda .com. That doesn't sound
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  any different than most pandas. I don't think
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  that's an adjective You need to add to pan honestly
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  doesn't sound any different than any of our regular
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  sources Sometimes at least we know how to pronounce
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  this one. I assume yeah This one is titled hundreds
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  of detainees reportedly missing from ice records
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  after being sent to alligator Alcatraz Oh, I
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  know about this one. It's real up. It's Peter
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  Michael de Jesus and it was published September
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  29, 2025. I thought it would be good to cover
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  because I haven't heard anything on it. So, a
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  chilling report has suggested that nearly two
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  -thirds of the 1 ,800 men brought to Florida's
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  new immigration detention center, branded Alligator
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  Alcatraz, could not be found in federal databases.
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  Families and attorneys have claimed that they've
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  lost track of loved ones with numerous detainees
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  reportedly disappearing from official records.
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  The U .S. Department Department of Homeland Security,
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  however, has claimed that none of the detention
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  centre's detainees are unaccounted for. News
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  about Alligator Alcatraz's missing detainees
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  was initially reported by the Miami Herald, which
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  obtained two detainee rosters from July and August.
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  By checking them against Immigration and Customs
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  Enforcement, ICE, databases, the Herald alleged
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  that a good portion of the centre's detainees
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  seemed to be missing. Reporters reportedly found
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  that a around 800 detainees had no records at
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  all, while another 450 were listed only with
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  the vague instruction to call ICE for details.
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  This meant that the whereabouts of nearly 1 ,200
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  men, or about two thirds of those brought to
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  the facility in July, could not be determined
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  by late August. The center, built in just eight
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  days, and what? I didn't know that. It's tense
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  in the middle of the bayou. That's crazy. Eight
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  days and officially run by Florida's division
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  of emergency management does not maintain a public
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  detainee database. This has reportedly resulted
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  in attorneys and family members being left in
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  the dark. It became a game of chicken to see
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  who's going to blink first, to see if the client's
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  going to say, I don't want to be detained in
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  these conditions, just send me back. That was
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  a quote. Miami immigration attorney Alex Solomiani
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  told the Herald. Some men, like a 53 year old
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  Guatemalan, who had lived in the US since 2001,
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  reportedly vanished from court dockets after
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  being detained. His lawyer said he was mistakenly
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  deported to Guatemala instead of being transferred
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  to another detention center, according to The
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  Mirror. In another case, Cuban national Michael
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  Borrego Fernandez was deported to Mexico despite
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  recovering from surgery. His family described
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  the silence around his case as psychological
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  torture. The US Department of Homeland Security
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  pushed back on the Herald's in a statement to
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  Snopes, which asked about the matter, the agency
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  argued that all of its detainees on the site
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  are accounted for, quote, false. No one is unaccounted,
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  including at Alligator Alcatraz. In ICE's online
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  detention locator system, this is yet another
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  hoax about the facility, end quote, the USDHS
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  stated. Attorneys and human rights advocates,
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  however, claimed otherwise. Court filings from
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  the American Civil Liberties Union have argued
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  that the detention center has violated detainees'
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  constitutional rights by making it nearly impossible
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  for lawyers to contact their clients. Families
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  for their part have also claimed that they've
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  been left in limbo. Records reviewed by the Herald
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  even suggested that the vast majority of detainees
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  didn't have final orders of removal before they
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  entered alligator alcatraz. Snopes concluded
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  that while it could not independently verify
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  every name on the Herald's list, real -life cases
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  like Borrego Fernandez's have shown the detainees
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  have indeed gone missing from the system or been
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  deported without notice. The fact -checking website
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  suggested that this may mean that the missing
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  detainees in the ISIS system have either been
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  deported or sent to unknown facilities without
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  their families or attorneys' knowledge. It's
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  a temporary stay before being flown to their
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  home country, one commenter stated. It's called
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  they got sent back to their country, no one is
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  missing, wrote another. The reality is that facility
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  is to detain, process, A bit of a background
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  on Alligator Alcatraz. Apparently, despite it
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  only taking eight days to build, it still cost
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  $20 million to build and it's going to have an
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  annual budget of $450 million to run. that's
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  crazy and i do want to comment the fact that
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  the government is saying oh yeah don't worry
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  we know where everybody is that's also kind of
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  damning in that even if that's true they're not
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  telling people where they are yeah like almost
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  intentionally if they do know where it is i'm
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  obviously there's a good chance they're lying
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  because that's what they love to lie but there's
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  a chance of that from what i know of it that
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  seems a boat on brand but people arguing that
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  maybe they just got sent back to their countries
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  There would be documentation showing they were
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  sent back to their countries if they were sent,
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  particularly with the embassy or the country
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  that they're being deported to. Well, there is
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  people being deported to, you know, countries.
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  Countries they should not be. Yeah. In the middle
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  of like destitute Africa. Yeah. War zones themselves
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  like really dangerous to be being deported to.
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  Yeah, South Sudan, of all places, was getting
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  some. I can't imagine. I think I might have been
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  here. Quote, the reality is that this facility
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  is to detain, process and either deport or release.
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  The planes leave from the airstrip on the premises.
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  There's zero reason that they should all still
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  be there. It's not a prison, another commentator
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  said. Others, however, remained aghast at the
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  missing records of the facility's detainees.
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  There's no record. Deported people have a record.
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  They just go before a judge. In brackets, you
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  ever heard of due process? bracket. These people
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  have been wiped from the database and there's
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  no record of where they went. It happened in
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  Germany too. Learn your history end quote one
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  commenter stated. Over a thousand unaccounted
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  for from a single facility within the first 60
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  days of operations. Think about that really really
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  think about that end quote an article. 20 people
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  a day going missing. Yes, I don't know that there's
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  a whole lot to comment on that other than what
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  you've commented but I thought it was important
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  nonetheless because I haven't been hearing a
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  whole lot about that so I just thought it was
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  good too. And I do think it's important to also
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  emphasize that although it is like front and
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  center, this is just one holding center for immigrants
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  and ICE detainees in the U .S. It's likely a
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  huge problem and I don't know there is a chance
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  that the worst case scenario is what has happened
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  and at least some of these people are dead yeah
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  yeah but yeah i mean let's not you guys got 48
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  hours do not focus on that sorry about this wednesday
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  yep don't do it it's got to get better from here
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  you would think yeah anyhow bye bye