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From military birthday parades to an attempt to alter birthright citizenship, President Donald Trump’s second term has sent the United States government into authoritarianism.

Trump proves again and again that he doesn’t want what is best for America or its people, only what is best for himself to further his own power and wealth. These actions can no longer be debated – they objectively mirror those of previous dictators.

Most blatant of all, though, is Trump’s recently-created concentration camp in the heart of Florida. It’s convenient this camp was created in the state Trump himself resides and where much of the demographic are die-hard supporters.

Alligator Alcatraz is an immigrant detainment center built in the Everglades holding up to 5,000 beds and little else. Less than a month in, detainees report worms in their meals, lack of proper care in facilities and visitors claiming to have seen an alarming number of people crammed into one small cage.

“Cage,” it seems, is the perfect word for the living conditions of the confinements. Insider pictures show metal chain link fences set up around bunk beds. There’s little-to-no space within the cages for much other than standing or sleeping, and Florida’s hot and humid air makes the environment unlivable and suffocating.

This isn’t the first time in history we’ve seen people cornered into inhumane environments to further dehumanize them. In fact, this is similar to Hitler’s targeting of the Jewish community in the 1930s. Alligator Alcatraz rips immigrants from society and ostracizes them in the same way Nazi concentration camps did to the Jewish community, earning it the nickname “Alligator Auschwitz.”

This cruel and unusual treatment must be met with hard protest, especially as Trump continues to urge other states to open similar ICE detention centers, and talks of reopening Alcatraz. He doesn’t care to listen to the millions of voices protesting against his actions because he knows he has millions of devoted, cultish followers who would die for him.

Rather than addressing these protests against the detainment center, Trump seems only to find amusement in the horrors, continuously making jokes about the alligators of the Everglades eating the detainees if they try to escape. Just like Hitler, he seems to be relishing in playing God, in determining the fate of innocent people’s lives just because he can.

“They have a lot of bodyguards, a lot of cops, that are in the form of alligators so you don’t have to pay them so much,” he said on July 1 speaking at the detention center.

The Everglades of Florida are known for their dangers, with snakes and alligators alike proving a threat to visitors. Trump himself said he “wouldn’t want to run through the Everglades for long.”

It makes me wonder how the president and supporters of Alligator Alcatraz believe the land to be the perfect place to hold immigrants despite feeling unsafe setting foot there themselves.

The underlying truth is this: Trump doesn’t view the immigrants he uses to fear-monger American citizens into submission and bigotry as people at all. In fact, it seems as if he only views them as a prop for his cruelties and a furthering of his radically conservative agenda.

Just as Hitler once used the Jewish people as a common enemy to rally his Nazi supporters, Trump does the same with immigrants.

As U.S. citizens, it’s vital to advocate for the oppressed voices within Alligator Alcatraz, listen to their cries and push against this disgusting detainment center.

Today, most Americans have sat in history classes at one point in their life, retrospectively condemning the Holocaust. I’ve even noticed some reflecting introspectively and asking themselves why it took so long for people to take action, to worry for their neighbors and speak out.

A poem by German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller powerfully explains why some chose silence: “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a socialist…Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

Right now is the time to prove what action we would’ve taken under similar circumstances instead of repeating history. We say we would’ve been braver, better or would’ve done something sooner, and now is our chance to turn those words into actions.

It shouldn’t take time passing or cruelties worsening in Alligator Alcatraz and beyond for us to condemn it in the same way we condemn past concentration camps. If the conditions of this “detainment center” don’t show Trump supporters that he’s following in Hitler’s dictatorial footsteps, then we can’t wait around for them to open their eyes.

Others may be obligingly ready to repeat history, but the rest of us don’t have to sit in wait.

Dayna Roberts is a junior majoring in creative writing. She can be reached at dbrobert@syr.edu.

Published on July 20, 2025 at 1:10 am