WASHINGTON ― In a new and disgusting development, the National Republican Congressional Committee is raising money by selling T-shirts that joke about immigrants being mauled by alligators at President Donald Trump’s so-called Alligator Alcatraz immigration detention center in Florida.
“That’s right! Alligator Alcatraz is officially open, and we are excited about it!!” reads a Monday fundraising email from the NRCC, which helps elect Republicans to Congress.
“So excited that we have decided to release a T-SHIRT!” it reads.
The email features an image of a T-shirt with an alligator wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap with ICE on it, which stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Atop the image, it reads, “Alligator Alcatraz.” Underneath, it reads, “ICE with a bite.”
The email reads: “Do you support keeping our nation safe from ILLEGAL CRIMINALS? Well, this is your chance to show support for ICE in their mission! Let’s make sure we keep our cities SAFE from criminal illegal aliens.”
The national Republican group’s fundraising pitch is as cruel as it is inaccurate. Trump has hailed the hastily constructed detention center, a 5,000-bed facility on an abandoned airfield in the Everglades wetlands, as a secure site for detaining “the most menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet.”
He’s also played up the fact that the facility is surrounded by predators, an added layer of security aimed at stopping people from trying to escape. “We’re going to teach them how to run away from an alligator, OK?” Trump said earlier this month.
But hundreds of people being held there aren’t facing any criminal charges or convictions, and the facility is better described as a concentration camp.
More than 700 immigrants are either being held under tents and in chain link cells there, or appear on track to be sent there. Of those 700-plus people, more than 250 of them have immigration violations but no criminal convictions or pending charges in the United States.
Detainees have reported that there is no water for bathing, bright lights that never turn off, mosquitoes everywhere, and maggots in their food. Others have described air conditioners being abruptly turned off in oppressive heat, detainees going for days without prescription medicine and toilets not flushing, which has left floors flooded with fecal waste.
Asked why the House Republican group thinks it’s funny or normal to hawk T-shirts joking about immigrants being mauled by alligators, NRCC Communications Director Will Kiley ignored the question and just urged people to buy the shirts.
“Only the Huffington Post would write a story crying about a T-shirt while ignoring the human traffickers, violent criminals, and chaos Democrats allowed into this country over the last four years,” said Kiley, who claimed the shirts are “going fast!”
The NRCC appears to be taking a cue from the Florida Republican Party, which since last week has been selling T-shirts, beer koozies and hats celebrating “Florida’s gator-guarded, python-patrolled prison for illegal aliens.”
“This isn’t just merch—it’s a statement for law and order and a salute to keeping America secure,” reads a June 27 Facebook post by the Republican Party of Florida. “Supplies are limited, so get yours before the gators do!”