Miami archbishop asks to hold Mass at Alligator Alcatraz. 'Still waiting' for answer

Lauren Costantino, Miami Herald on Jul 21, 2025

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MIAMI — Miami’s top Catholic leader stopped by the state’s controversial Everglades detention center for migrants during a Sunday motorcycle ride with dozens of other Catholic bikers.

Archbishop Thomas Wenski visited "Alligator Alcatraz," Florida’s new migrant detention center located in an isolated airstrip near the Big Cypress National Preserve, to pray for for detainees. But the entrance of the facility is as far as he was able to go without approval from officials.

“Sunday PM about 25 Knights on Bikes stopped at entrance of Alligator Alcatraz and prayed a rosary for the detainees,” Wenski wrote on a post on X. “Archdiocese is still waiting for approval to access to provide Mass for detainees.”

Officials at the Archdiocese said they are still awaiting a response from the facility to allow chaplains and clergy to visit and “offer spiritual care, the sacraments, and the healing presence of Christ to those in detention.”

Wenski, who recently denounced the detention center, was joined by around 25 “Knights on Bikes,” a charitable Catholic men’s ministry within the Knights of Columbus organization, and shared photos and videos of the pastoral excursion.

The Archdiocese of Miami called the visit “a powerful moment of prayerful solidarity,” that reflects the organization’s “ongoing commitment to ministering to the marginalized and incarcerated.”

“... Decency requires that we remember the individuals being detained are fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters of distressed relatives,” Wenski said in a statement. “We wish to ensure that chaplains and pastoral ministers can serve those in custody, to their benefit and that of the staff.”

Sunday’s motorcycle visit is the second act of solidarity the Catholic church has shown in recent weeks to oppose Florida’s crackdown on deportations. In a prior statement, Wenski said it was “alarming to see enforcement tactics that treat all irregular immigrants as dangerous criminals.”

In the strongly word column posted to the Archdiocese of Miami’s website earlier this month, Wenski said “the apparent lack of due process in deportation proceedings in recent months,” was surprising and called the rhetoric surrounding the ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ “intentionally provocative.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials have repeatedly defended conditions for detainees at the pop-up migrant camp. Earlier this month, Stephanie Hartman, a spokeswoman for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said detainees’ stories about problems at the facility — including toilets that don’t flush, large bugs and temperatures that fluctuate from icy to sweltering — were inaccurate.

“The reporting on the conditions in the facility is completely false,” Hartman told the Herald. “The facility meets all required standards and is in good working order.”

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(This story was produced with financial support from Trish and Dan Bell and from donors comprising the South Florida Jewish and Muslim Communities, including Khalid and Diana Mirza, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.)

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