Faith and frustration as Coral Springs group joins Alligator Alcatraz protests
Members of Joyful Resistance loaded onto a bus at 1:30 p.m. for the 90-minute trek into the Everglades to join groups that have spent the past 31 Sundays in front of Alligator Alcatraz.
The group has long participated in nonviolent No Kings Day actions and has regular vigils at the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach.
Katherine Donovan managed check-in, welcoming newcomers onto the bus. The longtime activist previously organized around gun control, but she said she could not ignore what she saw on her TV.
“It shocks me every day when we wake up and watch the news,” she said. “This is un-American.”
Joyful Resistance joined groups already present at the site, including the Palm Beach County Indivisible Immigration Coalition, Witness at the Border and Workers Circle. The final headcount for the Sunday, March 1, vigil was estimated to be 150.
Many stood along the road, 25 feet from the driveway into the detention facility, expressing a collective sense of anger and horror at reports of brutality by ICE officials inside and outside of these camps — and others like them.
Deemaris Young was one of the protestors who stood feet from passing cars and trucks, holding her sign and a flag above her head.
“The fact that people are being hunted down just off of their parents, the color of their skin, where they come from, ethnicity, what language they speak — I’m here because it’s bigger than me,” Young told the Coral Springs News.
“My grandfather immigrated from Guatemala when he came here. Life was very hard for him. So my family is a family of immigrants. I am a product of immigration.”
Sunday’s vigil was also organized in part as a response to the Department of Justice announcement that it will not reimburse the state for building Alligator Alcatraz — a project estimated to cost over half a billion dollars— contrary to past statements from Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state and federal officials.
That means the bulk of the bill falls on Florida taxpayers via the state’s emergency fund, money that typically goes toward hurricane relief.
“This is a $608 million (and counting) human rights catastrophe,” Christine Calareso Bleecker, founder of Joyful Resistance, said in a news release. “As people of faith and conscience in Florida we gather to pray, to support immigrant families being torn apart, and insist in the name of God, that our nation end this government-driven cruelty to our neighbors.”
Bleeker and others referenced documented human rights issues at the South Florida facility and others, including poor sanitation, lack of adequate food, water, medical care or access to attorneys.
A Miami Herald investigation has also raised questions about detainees’ seemingly disappearing after leaving the facility.
These claims are disputed by ICE officials and government contractors.
Protestors also spent time listening to interfaith leaders — including pastors and rabbis — and joined in song. That included “We Shall Overcome,” sung by Rev. Arthur Jones.
As the crowd joined in, a rainbow appeared.
Members of the Coral Springs group loaded back onto the bus as the afternoon came to an end. Both the weight of the afternoon and a sense of something lighter followed Reverend Mary Robertson home.
“It’s terribly painful to witness the constant coming and going [from Alligator Alcatraz] already. But, it’s very heartening to hear and lift up our spirits with each other,” Robertson told the Coral Springs News.
“I feel hopeful and determined that we have to persist.”
This story was originally published March 2, 2026 at 8:11 AM.
