Interfaith leaders visit Tallahassee seeking access to Alligator Alcatraz detainees

Lauren Costantino, Miami Herald on Oct 9, 2025

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MIAMI – A group of interfaith leaders visited Tallahassee Thursday seeking access to detainees at Alligator Alcatraz, the controversial migrant detention facility in the Everglades.

It was not the first time they’ve made the request.

Clergy representing six different faiths — from the First United Methodist Church to Judaism — delivered a letter to the Florida Department of Emergency Management seeking permission from the state to provide one-on-one chaplaincy services to the detainees at the detention center, a practice that’s common in most other correctional facilities in Florida.

This time, the group received a hopeful response — though there was some confusion about the type of religious services that are already taking place at the facility.

Keith Pruett, the deputy executive director of FDEM, told clergy that he thought the facility already provided religious services, according to Rev. David Williamson, who attended the letter drop-off on Thursday. Williamson said that Pruett agreed to bring up the issue with Kevin Guthrie, the executive director of FDEM, when he returns to Tallahassee.

“He was open to this conversation. He was going to bring it to the attention of the director when he got back in town on Monday, and he promised to follow up. So we look forward to hearing from him about what the next steps are for us to be able to get this access,” Williamson told the Miami Herald.

Guthrie’s office did not immediately respond to the Miami Herald’s request for comment on the issue.

It’s likely that Pruett was referring to religious services hosted by the Catholic Church, which requested permission in July to provide ongoing services including Catholic mass to the detainees and staff at the detention center. The Archdiocese said the state responded to their request after “months of dialogue” between Florida Bishops, Catholic leadership and “state correctional authorities.”

The visit to Guthrie’s office comes more than a month after the interfaith group made an initial request to hold services via email.

Guthrie responded to the Aug. 22 email hours later saying he had “forwarded the email” request — though to whom was unclear — but that the facility would be empty “in a few days.” The interfaith clergy said they sent “multiple follow-ups via email” but never received another response.

Guthrie’s initial response about emptying the facility came after a federal judge’s order that had forced Florida to slowly shut down Alligator Alcatraz, blocking the Trump administration from sending new detainees to the Everglades detention camp back in August. However, an appeals court paused the decision, leaving the facility open for the time being.

Providing spiritual care to ‘all people’

The clergy group requesting the access includes eight South Florida pastors who agreed to provide chaplain services, and was signed by over 100 other clergy throughout the state, representing “hundreds of thousands of people in Florida,” according to the letter.

Williamson, who is a part of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church, said the group of Tallahassee clergy delivered the in-person letter on behalf of those local Miami pastors who are asking for access to provide “important spiritual care.”

“As clergy, we take a sacred vow to support all people with spiritual care, regardless of their race, of their nationality, of their religion or their legal status,” said Williamson. “It is not only a matter of conscience that we do it, it’s a matter of recognizing someone’s constitutional right to receive this kind of care based on the First Amendment.”

For 10 weeks, a growing crowd of faith leaders and concerned residents have been protesting outside the controversial immigration detention center every Sunday evening. The hour-long weekly vigils have brought out faith leaders and followers from all parts of South and Central Florida to offer prayers for detainees and speak out against Florida’s decision to construct the camp in the middle of the Everglades.

“Our request is nonpartisan, rooted in our sacred vows, and focused solely on those detainees’ dignity and spiritual rights,” a statement from the interfaith clergy group reads. “Regardless of facility population numbers, our commitment remains: if people are being held, they deserve access to pastoral care.”