Google Speech-to-Text API Automatic Transcription (Chirp). Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:06Bueno, duró año, a qué me refiero? Well, it lasted year. What am I
00:00:10referring to? A prison, very unusual prison a
00:00:13detention center in Florida surrounded by alligators in
00:00:17case anyone managed escape. Who was held there,
00:00:20criminals? No, immigrants. It was an
00:00:23experiment, because it opened about year ago and recently shut
00:00:27down. Who benefited from it? "the most important
00:00:31point I want to make is that in the context
00:00:33of the recent and mysterious death of senator Lindsay Graham, had
00:00:37recently been to Ukraine, let me remind you that earlier this
00:00:41year in Tel Aviv, this man said that what was happening in Gaza
00:00:45was the model for wars anywhere in
00:00:47of the world, including against
00:00:49immigrants,
00:00:57it opened in July 2025 and closed one year."
00:01:00natural cage, if you escaped, the alligators would eat you. They move
00:01:04incredibly fast, Trump said.
00:01:07It was the largest prison for migrants, not criminals, not convicted
00:01:11of offenders, not people on trial, but simply migrants who arrived in the
00:01:14United States. This corrupt and criminal
00:01:17of experiment cost more than $1.2 billion, averaging
00:01:21$3,500 per prisoner per day. A year ago,
00:01:25in just
00:01:25of matter of days, without transparency and inside protected natural
00:01:28areas, Several companies built this migrant detention
00:01:32center. They named it
00:01:34of alligator because
00:01:35of the thousands of alligators surrounding it and alcatras after the legendary
00:01:39Maximum Security prison in San Francisco that once housed some of
00:01:42America's most notorious criminals. It's official name was the
00:01:46South Florida Detention Center. Maximum capacity
00:01:50200 people. The facility was accused of torture,
00:01:54shortages of medication, inadequate medical care, insufficient
00:01:58food and infrastructure that. to inhumane living
00:02:01conditions. In total, 21 migrants
00:02:05passed through the facility. Today they have been transferred like mere
00:02:09objects to other prisons across the United
00:02:11States.
00:02:20Thomas Kennedy, Thomas Kennedy is the spokes person for
00:02:24the Florida immigrant coalition based in the very state where the
00:02:28alligator Alcatras.
00:02:54of
00:02:58of
00:03:12prison or
00:03:14since this detention center was located there in florida. Thomas, I clearly
00:03:18remember President Donald Trump saying that this immigrant
00:03:21in detention center
00:03:22of was a model that would be expanded to the rest
00:03:25of the United States. However, the prison has now been
00:03:28closed, the people were...
00:03:57of because it
00:04:00was the
00:04:01of first detention facility operated entirely by a
00:04:05state government rather than the federal government. normally the
00:04:08federal government grants the authority to detain
00:04:12migrants through federal contracts. so without those
00:04:16federal contracts, this detention
00:04:18of center operated without
00:04:20of any of real oversight or accountability, becoming
00:04:24kind
00:04:24me of quasi clandestine extrajudicial
00:04:28jurisdiction. the other problem was that it was built inside
00:04:31ecological reserve where they weren't even allowed to
00:04:35install lightning infrastructure because
00:04:37of the protected wildlife and endangered species in the
00:04:41area. it was also located next to a protected native american
00:04:45reservation. as
00:04:46a result, they faced numerous legal challenges under both
00:04:50state and federal law in order to continue building and
00:04:53operating the detention center.
00:04:55of top of that, they spent more than $1 billion dollars from what we
00:04:59call Here in Florida, the emergency reserve fund, that is
00:05:03money the state sets aside for disasters such
00:05:07as hurricanes, wildfires
00:05:09and other emergencies. They
00:05:11of spent more than one billion dollars and after just one year of
00:05:15operating the detention center, the reserve fund had only $9
00:05:19million left, which is practically nothing. they had
00:05:22completely depleted it, so from both a political and
00:05:26economic or rather fiscal standpoint, it was simply
00:05:30unsustainable to continue operating this
00:05:32detention.
00:05:37what happened to the people who were being held there? what can you tell us that
00:05:41the public may not? already know international organizations such
00:05:45as Amnesty International went so far as to conclude
00:05:49that this detention center constituted the violation of human
00:05:52rights.
00:05:56That's a good question. We worked together with Amnesty International
00:06:00and Amnesty International concluded that certain
00:06:03punishments used at this detention center amounted to torture.
00:06:07For example, they would place the teines in what the guards called the
00:06:11box. It was a space measuring just two feet by
00:06:15two feet where people were chained outdoors,
00:06:18exposed to the elements and the blazing sun for seven or
00:06:22eight hours a time, simply left there to suffer. As for what
00:06:26happened to the detainies, the vast majority were
00:06:29transferred to other detention centers. In fact, just
00:06:33recently we held a press conference in downtown Miami, because
00:06:37federal prison is now holding more than 100 detainees
00:06:41who were previously. at alligator Alcatras and they're
00:06:45being kept in rooms during the middle the Florida summer. It's
00:06:48extremely hot, yet they have no air conditioning. There are
00:06:52about 90 people packed into each room. I believe there are only two
00:06:56or three rooms. They're being served poor quality, spoiled
00:07:00food, and the prison is infested with cockroaches. We're being
00:07:04told that they're actually enduring even worse conditions than they
00:07:07did at alligator Alcatras, but overall they've been
00:07:11dispersed among.
00:07:21Very well, Thomas, let me turn now to Leopoldo Mendaval
00:07:25here in the studio, leopoldo, years ago I visited the
00:07:28Maricopa county jail run by sheriff Joe
00:07:32Arpeyo where inmates were dressed in pink and so on. There was
00:07:36clearly intention to humiliate people, and from what Thomas has just
00:07:40described, it seems we're talking. not only about
00:07:43humiliation, but about conditions that come very close to
00:07:46deliberate human suffering. how do you view Donald Trump's
00:07:50entire immigration policy? does it bear a distinctive
00:07:54hallmark compared with previous administrations in the United
00:07:57States?
00:08:07that underlying mindset is probably directed at the loyal segment of his
00:08:10supporters, the remaining 30%. percent who will stand behind Trump no matter
00:08:14what he does, because he is giving
00:08:16them exactly the kind of satisfaction they want, and following Thomas
00:08:20Kennedy's remarks, I believe the illegality surrounding all of
00:08:23this inevitably takes us back to Germany in the
00:08:261930s, because history is repeating itself in many
00:08:30ways. In fact, it's no coincidence that Stephen
00:08:33Miller, one the chief architects of this project, has openly
00:08:37described facilities such as the Everglades detention
00:08:42that has... center, been
00:08:42one closed the as concentration camps, literally
00:08:45camps, they are no longer even trying to soften the language, that
00:08:49is essentially how they themselves view these places. there's
00:08:53another point Thomas also touched on, namely that an entirely new legal
00:08:57framework has been created, if it can even be called that to justify these
00:09:01arrests, again it takes us back to Germany in the
00:09:041930s, because at that time new legal doctrine was
00:09:08created that resembles what we now call preventive detention.
00:09:12Under that system, it was no longer necessary to prove that someone had committed
00:09:16a crime. Instead, the government declared a state of
00:09:20emergency. They called it shutshaft, and
00:09:23essentially the German government manufactured its own
00:09:26emergency after the parliament building caught fire,
00:09:30blamed all the regime's political enemies and that alone
00:09:34became sufficient grounds to imprison them. What is
00:09:38especially disturbing about the current Trump administration is that the
00:09:41architects.
00:09:44of this new agenda, project 2025, have essentially developed a
00:09:47strategy for creating a state of emergency and then invoking
00:09:51two old laws, one from 1788 and
00:09:54another from 1798, known as the enemies
00:09:58act. the United States had barely come into existence
00:10:02as the so-called land of liberty when President John Adams enacted
00:10:06that law based on the principle that enemies the government should be
00:10:09imprisoned. there were four such acts later, another
00:10:12president, one truly believed in liberty, and like those claim that
00:10:16labeled today, Thomas Jefferson argued that these laws violated
00:10:20freedom and the declaration of independence. He repealed three
00:10:24them. but one remained, that is the law they are invoking
00:10:28today. In order to make it work, the US government has perversely,
00:10:32in my view, had to create the illusion of a state of war, because only
00:10:36under those circumstances can such inhumane law, one that
00:10:39violates fundamental legal principles be put into
00:10:42effect, and to return to your question, Rubaine, about
00:10:46whether this model will continue even though this particular prison has been
00:10:50closed, there's one more point
00:10:52worth mentioning. Florida attorney general who
00:10:56spearheaded this project deliberately gave it the terrifying name alligator
00:11:00alcatras before entering politics, he played
00:11:03for the florida gaters, so there is also an element of spectacle or
00:11:07even play in all of this. It reflects the psychology behind
00:11:11these people, this desire, as you said, to humiliate and to
00:11:15establish
00:11:16dominance.
00:11:21Do you see Donald Trump's immigration policy
00:11:24as something?
00:11:34Yes, obviously because the level of cruelty in the policy, but
00:11:38I'd like to expand a little on the analysis we just heard, because
00:11:42one the most influential legal theories of Nazi Germany
00:11:46was Carl Smith, wrote a book called the state of exception,
00:11:50in other words, the state of emergency, we're just discussing not only in the
00:11:54federal. here in the United States using emergency laws to
00:11:58carry out this aggressive immigration enforcement, but here in
00:12:02Florida, governor Ron Den Santes has kept a state honor
00:12:05a state of emergency since 2023, he has renewed that
00:12:09emergency declaration 20 times and has used it to
00:12:13establish detention centers like alligator,
00:12:16alcutras without having to go through normal administrative or
00:12:19legislative procedures. He has also used to spend money from the
00:12:23emergency funds and mentioned earlier, awarding those funds without
00:12:27any competitive bidding process or accountability to us, the
00:12:31tax payers. I think the most disturbing part of all this is
00:12:35that governments with concentration camps or detention camps,
00:12:39usually try to hide them, they feel embarrassed by them or try to
00:12:42justify them. Here in Florida, as you've just heard, both the
00:12:46state government and the federal government were proud of this
00:12:50concentration camp. In fact, the governor and James
00:12:53Amir, the state. attorney general said that this detention center has
00:12:57an entrance but no exit and that anyone who tried escape would be
00:13:01met by alligators, pythons and death. they said it openly,
00:13:05what's more the florida republican party, the party of Trump, the
00:13:09governor and the rest was selling t-shirts, shirts, caps
00:13:13and monks with the alligator alcatras logo, featuring
00:13:16pythons, crocodiles and alligators. it was something truly
00:13:20dark, truly evil, and they openly mocked the suffering these
00:13:24people.
00:14:25if i'm mistaken on some the details, once the war was over,
00:14:28there was a change of administration, dwight eisenhower came into
00:14:31office and he was the one who said, now it's time to send them all
00:14:35back, launching what became known as operation wetback, throw the
00:14:39wetbacks out, the americans can be pretty
00:14:42ext,
00:14:49let ask you something, senator lindsay recently passed away
00:14:53earlier this year, While in Tel Aviv, Senator Graham
00:14:57said that what was happening in Gaza would become the model for future
00:15:01wars around the world. According to several American analysts i have
00:15:05read, they say he was right. They argue that the tactics being
00:15:09used in Gaza are now being extended to the persecution,
00:15:13not of criminals, but of immigrants, with Israeli methods being
00:15:16adapted and applied in that sphere of
00:15:19experiment. as
00:15:20kind
00:15:37framework for intervention by equating drug trafficking with
00:15:40terrorism, he was the one pushing that idea.
00:15:44lindraham consistently supported these kinds of supremacist policies
00:15:48and they pose a real danger to humanity. that's why
00:15:51i applawed the work Thomas is doing, because this mentality is becoming
00:15:55normalized in many political circles, particularly among certain far
00:15:59right parties in Europe, the normalizing these kinds of actions
00:16:03in the name of defending themselves from migrants, whether they're coming
00:16:06from.
00:16:07of extermination
00:16:17these kinds policies can somehow be justified, beneath that lies another
00:16:20layer, satisfying tribal instincts. many sociologists have
00:16:24studied this: for segment of middle America, there is a sense of
00:16:28pride, even pleasure, even a dopamine rush, in crushing
00:16:32people they consider inferior, everything else is merely
00:16:35attempt to justify that.
00:17:07practically an interview that aired on the telemundo network. she
00:17:11was essentially saying that organizations such as blackwater should
00:17:15at some point enter mexico because in her view drug trafficking
00:17:19groups were intrinsically linked to terrorist organizations. in other
00:17:23words, it was very much along the same lines as what Trump is
00:17:27saying
00:17:27today.
00:17:37way is something I find disastrous and terrible, but I'd like to return to
00:17:41Lindsay Graham's remarks, because I think he was imprecise in
00:17:45the way he expressed himself. What the Israeli entity has contributed through
00:17:49its intervention in Gaza is surveillance technology, technology
00:17:53for monitoring social media, tracking people's movements,
00:17:56surveillance, cameras and technologies capable of hacking computers and
00:18:00mobile phones. These technologies have now been implemented here in
00:18:04the United States under the pretext of combating.
00:18:07anti-semitism, when in reality they're being used to suppress
00:18:11pro-palestinan activism and to expand immigration
00:18:15enforcement by giving ICE, DHS and other agencies
00:18:19additional tools to continue this witch hunt against
00:18:23immigrants, but I think that in terms of what is happening in that region,
00:18:27what has truly revolutionized warfare is what we have seen in
00:18:31Iran. We're witnessing a civilization thousands of years old
00:18:35with highly intelligent and well-per'. people who have
00:18:38spent decades preparing for this moment by using low cost
00:18:42technology and asymmetric tactics essentially a form of
00:18:45technological gorilla warfare with drones and similar systems,
00:18:49they have been able to confront eight persian gulf countries,
00:18:53Israel and the united states while also maintaining control
00:18:57over
00:18:57the straight of hormos, so a way linzi graham was right, but not in
00:19:01the way he imagined he would be when they decided to confront Iran,
00:19:05what we're seeing now is what we call the... The
00:19:08surveillance technologies originally developed to control the population
00:19:12in Gaza and the Palestinians in that region are now
00:19:16beginning to be used here in this country and elsewhere to hunt
00:19:19immigrants. Little by little, however, they expend until they are used
00:19:23to monitor and control the entire
00:19:26population,
00:19:27including citizens.
00:19:32And yet, most Americans remain unaware the policies the United
00:19:36States pursued in the country. that have generated these waves of
00:19:40migration, that was always one of my greatest
00:19:43frustrations during my 18 years as a journalist in the
00:19:46United States, realizing how little awareness there was. they
00:19:50keep criticizing one another, but Barack Obama voted in favor
00:19:54the border wall, and Hillary Clinton voted in favor the border wall
00:19:58as well. Absolutely.
00:20:02Take for example, many other gangs that now operate throughout Central
00:20:06America, they actually... originated in the prisons of Los
00:20:09Angeles, those individuals were later deported to central
00:20:12America where they continued organizing themselves into
00:20:16criminal groups. Another example would be the paramilitary and drug
00:20:20trafficking groups in Central America and Colombia that according to
00:20:24critics were financed by the CIA and the US state
00:20:27department. Today we're also seeing sanctions that are crippling
00:20:31countries such as Cuba and Venezuela contributing to the
00:20:34migration flows arriving here in Florida. and elsewhere in
00:20:38the United States, then there's the destruction of Haiti, a process that
00:20:42stretches back more than a century, since the 1990s
00:20:46Haiti's autonomy and the industries that could have developed their...
00:20:50have been systematically undermined, which is clearly
00:20:54contributed to the wave of Haiti and migration into Florida, so I
00:20:58completely agree that there is no accountability for the way US
00:21:01policies and interventions in our countries encourage
00:21:05migration, only for the US government to then blame the migrants
00:21:09themselves for seeking better life in the United States, or simply
00:21:13trying to escape authoritarian governments in
00:21:16violence.
00:21:31literally and it really was a shameless remark that
00:21:34it is not in the United States interest to have a Japan south the
00:21:37border, there has been a great deal of research into how whenever a
00:21:41Mexican industrial or business initiative begins to succeed, a
00:21:45system of intervention quickly follows aimed at buying those
00:21:48initiatives or... with others so that we always remain
00:21:52behind, so as thomas was saying, how can a
00:21:56government punish immigrants when it is the very same government
00:22:00discouraging development and economic growth in their own
00:22:03countries
00:22:04that
00:22:12su access? is there anything else
00:22:16we should know or investigate about what happened at alligator?
00:22:20alcatras is there impunity, which companies
00:22:23enriched themselves, because just as there is a military
00:22:26industrial complex, there's also a prison industrial
00:22:30complex, and that extends to the privatization of prisons,
00:22:33especially immigrant detention centers rather than prisons for
00:22:37convicted
00:22:37criminals.
00:22:42that's a very good question, it's something i've spoken and written about
00:22:46extensively, the economic interests and the entire industry.
00:22:50that has grown around these detention centers. As I said before,
00:22:53alligator Alcatras was always going to close sooner or later,
00:22:57but when it closed, a large number of private contractors and
00:23:01companies simply walked away without facing any
00:23:05consequences. After making enormous amounts of money. Remember, more than
00:23:09one billion dollars was spent from the state's emergency funds
00:23:12and virtually all of that money went to private
00:23:16contractors. Nothing inside that facility was that... actually
00:23:20run by the government, everything was managed by private companies. I'll
00:23:24give you one example, a single company whose only job was
00:23:28supplying portable toilets, what we call portapoties, was
00:23:31awarded a contract worth $219
00:23:34million. That's $219 million
00:23:38for just one portable toilet company. Later numerous cases of
00:23:42corruption came to light showing that some these funds were being
00:23:45used for private jets and luxury air travel in mind.
00:23:50opinion, these are criminal corruption cases, because $1
00:23:53billion is an enormous amount of money for the state government
00:23:57of
00:23:57Florida.
00:24:14And then hide its hand. There is a deeper issue here that must
00:24:17continue to be examined.
00:29:02many?
00:30:11Iran's parliament speaker dismisses Donald Trump's threats of military
00:30:14action followed by demands for negotiations as theater
00:30:18diplomacy on loop. new report reveals
00:30:21nearly 700 American forces suffer traumatic brain injuries
00:30:26eurons missile and drone strikes on US
00:30:28bases.
00:30:32and Yemen's arm forces say they have conducted major military
00:30:35operation against Saudi backed mercenaries in Yemen planning
00:30:39to attack the Capital
00:30:41Sana.