DeSantis Slams “Outlandish” Comparison of Alligator Alcatraz to Guantanamo Bay: “I Served in Gitmo”
RCP White House reporter Philip Wegmann asked Florida Governor Ron DeSantis about human rights concerns raised by Democrats and the ACLU during a visit to the migrant detention facility called “Alligator Alcatraz.” Wegmann asked: “You are named in the ACLU lawsuit against the Trump administration, which alleges that some detainees here do not have access to legal representation. Can you assure the American public, and people who say they have family members in this facility, that they do have access to lawyers?” “Lawyers will be able to come around the clock,” DeSantis said. “They are entitled to that, and they are being provided that. They’re even going to start 24-hour visits for lawyers.” “Kevin Guthrie, the division head overseeing this, debunked that,” DeSantis said. “There were some IT issues with the email addresses, but they’ve remedied that.” Wegmann followed up, asking DeSantis about human rights concerns: “Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost toured the facility and said it was inhumane. A former Biden DHS spokesperson compared Alligator Alcatraz to Guantanamo Bay.” “Do you honestly think they are going to say this is professionally run, no matter what we did?” DeSantis said. “Of course, they’re not going to say that. This is a political thing for them.” “It’s interesting you bring up Gitmo,” he added. “I served in Gitmo when I was on active duty. I remember the hysteria from the left on that. I showed up to Gitmo, and it was a professionally run facility. There are different facilities-the Khalid Sheik Mohammed maximum security and the open air, with detainees playing soccer. It was a fake narrative, what they did with Gitmo, and what they’re doing here is a fake narrative.” “Let’s be clear about the Democrats making these charges,” DeSantis said. “Two things are true. None of them ever raised any questions or showed any sympathy for the victims of illegal immigration.” “Number two, the people who make these outlandish charges invariably don’t believe illegal aliens should be deported at all,” he said. They think you have a right to enter illegally and stay. They think deportation is somehow inhumane. If you can’t deport anyone, you can’t enforce the law.” “It can’t be a one-way ratchet-where they get to let in 10 million, and then somehow, when Americans want that remedied, the American people aren’t entitled to see those ten million brought back to their own country.”
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