Faith and activism intersected in the Everglades over the weekend, as hundreds of people braved a sweltering afternoon to take part in the first Catholic mass held outside Alligator Alcatraz.
Organized by Palm Beach County's Guatemalan Maya Center, the ceremony was in protest of the reportedly harsh conditions inside, where over 700 immigrants are in custody — and many allegedly without proper access to legal counsel.
The mass on Saturday came just days before a federal judge is expected to rule on an environmental lawsuit looking to close down the facility, and on the back of Gov. Ron DeSantis announcing a second new detention center in north Florida.
READ MORE: ACLU Attorney: Rights of 'Alligator Alcatraz' detainees being violated at detention center
From late morning, attendees from across the state began to gather under a makeshift tent across the road from the entrance to the detention center, where the now infamous 'Alligator Alcatraz' sign was erected, and just a few yards away from the Everglades' marsh.
As Father Frank O'Laughlin, an 83-year-old Irish priest who's spent six decades advocating for immigrants and farmworker, delivered a sermon from a mini pulpit, cars could be heard driving by — some hurling insults at the attendees, while others honked in approval.
In front of attendees that included clergy from other churches, immigration activists, lawyers, community leaders and relatives of detainees, O'Laughlin spoke about liberating the poor, and advocated for "liberty to the oppressed" at what he called "this unfortunate moment in the history of the United States and Florida."
Meanwhile, loved ones delivered impassioned pleas for the release of detained friends and family.
Yuri, an indigenous Mayan girl who has relatives detained in Alligator Alcatraz, delivered her message in Mam, one of the indigenous languages spoken in the Guatemalan community in Lake Worth Beach, before translating herself into English:
"We pray for our parents who lost their home," she said, before breaking down. "And their families in order to find a safe place for us, their children."
During the ceremony, Betty Osceola, a long-time environmental activist and member of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, said a prayer. She told WLRN it was an attempt to counter what she feared was dehumanization of the detainees.
"My prayer was about for us to be human beings to treat each other as human beings," she said. "My prayer was also about that the individuals who are being detained know that we see them and we haven't forgotten."
The public handling of Alligator Alcatraz "has been done in the shadows," Father Aidan Lacy, of St. Patrick Catholic Church in Palm Beach Gardens, who attended the Mass in solidarity, told WLRN afterwards.
"If they are so convinced of the righteousness, then it should be total transparency. Unfortunately, we don't have that."
Meanwhile, Mari Blanco, director of the Guatemalan Maya Center, a Catholic nonprofit, said the detention center is "going to be very costly for our state."
"And I do believe of course it's a poor decision from the governor considering that we now the conditions that the detainees are being held in," she told WLRN.
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