A busload of demonstrators voiced their outrage at the treatment of immigrants.
By Ramon Lopez
Original Air Date: November 12, 2025
Host: A busload of Sarasota clerics and activists took a ride to the Alligator Alcatraz to protest the immigrant crackdown and conditions at the detention camp in the Everglades. WSLR News reporter Ramon Lopez tagged along.
Photos by Ramon Lopez
[Car horns honking]
Singers: As the fog was lifting,
A voice was chanting:
This land was made for you and me.
Ramon Lopez: It was prayer and protest for 63 Sarasota clergymen and faithful at Alligator Alcatraz this past Saturday.
They were at the ICE lockup to protest President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policy and Florida’s operation of controversial detention centers for rounded up undocumented immigrants.
The protestors exited a packed commercial tour bus and stretched along the highway across from the front gate of the Big Cypress Detention Center, waving homemade signs and chanting.
Speaker: When the Constitution is under attack, what do we do?
Crowd: Stand up! Fight back!
Speaker: When our rights are under attack, what do we do?
Crowd: Stand up! Fight back!
Speaker: When immigrants are under attack, what do we do?
Crowd: Stand up! Fight back!
The protesters were under the watchful eye of Florida State Troopers and what seemed to be a surveillance drone. Photo by Ramon Lopez
For the next two hours, they were under the watchful eye of Florida State Troopers and what appeared to be a Predator surveillance drone flying overhead. Cars sped by, honking their support or blaring their disapproval of the anti-ICE demonstration.
The peaceful protest was organized by the Immigration Justice Coalition of South West Florida. Partners include the Unitarian Universalists of Sarasota congregation, the Suncoast Jewish Alliance, First Congregational UCC and Unitarian Universalists of Venice.
Also attending were representatives of Sarasota United for Responsibility and Equality. SURE is a social justice organization for a dozen local congregations and interfaith leaders. We hear from SURE’s lead organizer Michelle Jewell.
Michelle Jewell: Today, we travel from Sarasota County deep into the Everglades to Big Cypress not as tourists or spectators but as people of faith and conscience. Our government holds human beings in cages far from their families, treated as less than human. We go there to bear witness, to pray, to show that love and justice are stronger than fear and cruelty. We go to remind our nation of its promise that all people are created equal.
Our mission is simple yet urgent: to advocate for and support our immigrant, refugee and asylum-seeking neighbors. Our goal is to ensure the rights and fair treatment of immigrants in our area by providing resources, raising awareness, fostering community support and promoting policies that guarantee equal access to justice, safety and opportunity regardless of immigration status.
RL: The groups advocate for the rights and fair treatment of immigrants, including due process and a legal pathway to citizenship for responsible immigrants who have lived and worked in the United States for decades.
Religious faiths and groups have been among the first to reject treatment immigrants are receiving. So Sarasota faith leaders and activists decided to hold a prayer vigil outside the detention center in the Everglades.
Since it opened at the beginning of July, Alligator Alcatraz has sparked a slew of controversy surrounding its existence. There’s multiple pending lawsuits from environmental and civil rights groups seeking to shutter the detention camp amidst allegations of inhuman conditions there.
Others expressed outrage about what’s going on.
Protestor 1: We have to resist injustice, or we do lose our democracy. Democracy does die if good people stay silent.
Protestor 2: We know that they shall overcome. They shall overcome. It may not be when we want it to happen, but God, we know that you are still in charge. There are no kings here. There are no prime ministers here.
Protestor 3: I am outraged at the treatment of these individuals in this detention center and other detention centers who have committed no crimes—who are a benefit to our economy. I feel horrible for their families.
RL: The busload of Black, brown and white-skinned Sarasotans reminded John Van Camp of the famed Freedom Riders.
These civil rights activists rode interstate buses into the Southern United States in the 1960s. The mixed racial groups challenged the disregard for federal law and the local violence used to enforce segregation there.
The head of The Social Justice Alliance of the Florida Suncoast, Van Camp, said undocumented immigrants also deserve due process and civil rights.
John Van Camp: I really believe in due process. The civil rights movement started off not as a movement; it started off as individual acts of civil disobedience. We’re creating a movement. We’re creating momentum towards democracy and justice, and I think we’ll prevail.
RL: This is Ramon Lopez for WSLR News.
WSLR News aims to keep the local community informed with our 1/2 hour local news show, quarterly newspaper and social media feeds. The local news broadcast airs on Wednesdays and Fridays at 6pm.