(RNS) — On Sunday (July 20), a group of more than two dozen motorcyclists, including Miami’s Catholic Archbishop Thomas Wenski, rode to “Alligator Alcatraz,” the Florida state immigration detention center in the wetlands of the Everglades, to pray the rosary.
The riders were members of the Knights on Bikes in Florida, a chapter of Knights on Bikes, an international fraternal organization of the Knights of Columbus. The Florida group has said the rosary outside prisons on several rides over the years, and Wenski, a rider himself and the chaplain for the international organization, suggested the stop at “Alligator Alcatraz.”
At least 700 people have been detained or scheduled to be sent to “Alligator Alcatraz,” which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration ordered built in eight days as a “makeshift detention space.” It is expected to hold up to 5,000 people and cost Florida $450 million to operate for a year. Migrants, former guards and Democratic lawmakers have raised safety concerns about the facility, including lack of water, leaking tents and swarming mosquitoes…