cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/45058930
āTheyāre treating people like animals. Alligator Alcatraz is like (Nazi) Germany in 1939, updated with 2026 rules,ā Dixon said in one of half a dozen phone calls he made to CTV News.
When he arrived at Alligator Alcatraz, Dixon says he and the other detainees were searched while handcuffed and shackled, then ordered to remove their clothes. They were given one set of underwear, a pair of flip flops and an orange jumpsuit.
Detainees were fingerprinted and assigned colour-coded bracelets. His bracelet was yellow, which meant he would get a hearing and stood a chance of not being deported.
He was then locked in a communal cell behind metal fencing that housed 16 bunkbeds for 32 men. What Dixon calls a ācageā had two urinals on the edge of the cell and a toilet in the centre. He says the smell of urine permeated the entire space and that the guards could see into the toilets.
ā¦
āThere was not one dangerous person in there,ā he said. āThese people all have families. Everyone is pulling for everyone else. They were working and were in there for nonsense reasons.ā
Dixon said the men in his pod were arrested because they ādidnāt have complete paperwork or did not renew their [driverās] licences,ā and were rounded up by ICE at the licence bureau.
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Detainees were given three meals a day: Breakfast would consist of canned fruit and toast or oatmeal; lunch was often a bologna sandwich, while shredded chicken or ground beef with peas and carrots would be served for dinner.
Dixon says he was allowed to shower three days after he arrived and was given one hour of yard time every four days. He says he longed to see the blue sky, but all he saw was the white plastic tarp that covered the astroturf yard.
The Canadian man says he was unable to sleep while at Alligator Alcatraz because of the noise and disruption. While the showers were scalding hot, Dixon says the facility was freezing cold. The high-powered generators required to cool the facility were loud. And during the overnight shifts, guards would turn the lights on every four hours to do a head count in the cells.
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Dixonās wife, Jo Ann Collison, says sheās worried about her husbandās anxiety.
āHis mind is deteriorating. Heās terrified of flying. He hasnāt flown anywhere,ā said Collison, tearing up during a Zoom interview. āHe wonāt be able to see his grandkids and that will be very hard.ā
Collison says she needs to pack up their life in Florida before she returns to Montreal to be with her husband.
āI canāt go with him now. What if for some reason ICE doesnāt let me back in?ā
After 65 days in detention, Dixon will board an American Airlines flight to Toronto on Wednesday. After 21 years of living in the United States, he will be barred from returning.
Well, duh. ICE has killed American citizens without any repercussions. Any foreign citizens in the US should be aware that they have zero rights or protections.
As an American, Iām preparing to leave.
They do have rights. Those rights just arenāt being protected or enforced.
Thereās a difference. Donāt give credence to this idea that people donāt have rights. They do, and that doesnāt change just because their rights are being violated.
I too want to leave, do you have any resources I can read to try getting out?
Most of whatās available is geared towards digital nomads or retirees or those who can afford a āgolden visa.ā If you fall into one of those categories, theyāre pretty easy to find with a web search.
I donāt fall into any of those categories so Iāve been researching countries in which Iām interested and going from there. I speak a couple of other languages fluently and have lived in a 3rd-world country before, so I am not looking for communities of expats. In fact, Iām trying to avoid them.
Honestly, most of what Iāve found about places that are geared towards expatriates gives me a bad vibe. That is, they are colonizers, trying to turn whatever town theyāre relocating to into a mini-US, pushing out local businesses and residents and replacing them with monolingual āentrepreneurs.ā