Are immigrants in internment jails actually prisoners of war?
In a recent interview, Florida representatives Maxwell Frost and Debbie Wasserman-Shultz described the brutal and inhuman conditions of Alligator Alcatraz in Florida where men from various Latin American countries have been interned without due process after being kidnapped by ICE. They reported seeing 32 men in small, hot dog-like cages with their drinking water coming from the supply line to a sink attached to the toilet. The toilets were often backed up with feces spilling out. These horrendous conditions may have been cleaned up ahead of the representatives’ planned visit.
Like prisoners of war during times of conflict, these individuals are being held “hostage.” They have no access to legal representation or their families. After all, this administration did invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 claiming this country was facing an invasion of gang-affiliated individuals and then treated them as “enemy aliens” with the goal of a quick deportation. Then if this is an invasion and a “war”, how would the Geneva Conventions apply? The Geneva Conventions, signed in 1949, are a group of four international treaties that establish humanitarian laws for the treatment of people during war.
The core concept is to protect human beings from harm, abuse, disease, and even death – even if they are considered to be the “enemy.” A determination needs to be made if it violated any of the Geneva Conventions … at the very least to determine if it violated International Human Rights Law.
Leslie Gray
Webster