An Italian citizen finds himself imprisoned in the swamplands, and the Alligator Alcatraz case exposes the Trump administration’s glaring disregard for human rights. Samuel Gheorghe, thirty years old and originally from Lodi, never imagined that his stay in the United States would conclude in one of the Trump administration’s most controversial detention facilities. We do not know how he arrived in the country, but we do know that during an identification check he was found to lack valid documentation. He was fitted with an electronic ankle monitor for supervised release, but after failing to appear for an appointment with Fort Lauderdale police, he was arrested and transferred five days ago to the Alligator Alcatraz detention centre. Gheorghe represents one of the first documented cases of European citizens ending up in the high-security facility that opened one month ago. His testimony may help us reconstruct the conditions in which detainees live within its confines.
Alligator Alcatraz can house up to five thousand people, making it one of the largest detention centres ever constructed on American soil. The facility, built in record time within the Big Cypress National Preserve in the Everglades, stands as a symbol of the deportation strategy championed by President Donald Trump. The name…