The first Catholic Mass was celebrated at the controversial immigrant detention center in the remote Everglades on Saturday and Church officials are now permitted by state corrections officials to provide Catholic ministry and pastoral care moving forward, Archdiocese of Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski said.
"The Archdiocese plans to have a successful and consistent Catholic presence at Alligator Alcatraz," Wenski said in a statement issued over the weekend.
"The Church has 'no borders' for we are all members of one human family," he said. "Our 'agenda' was always to announce the 'good news' to the poor."
Wenski leads the state's largest Archdiocese and one of nation's largest with nearly 900,000 Catholics.
Wenski noted that Florida Bishops, the Archdiocese of Miami leadership negotiated with Florida correctional officials to have "full access" to the facility, allowing Catholic chaplains and pastoral ministers to offer two liturgical Masses to detainees inside what state officials have dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz."
"I am pleased that our request to provide for the pastoral care of the detainees has been accommodated," Wenski said.
While the Church has been given authority to gain access to detainees, attorneys with clients inside the facility say they have been locked out.
Several attorneys filed a federal lawsuit July 16, saying they have been unable to reach their detained clients with confidential calls or meetings in person. Their only option has been infrequent, paid and surveilled phone calls, they claim.
READ MORE: 'Confusion' over who's in charge of Alligator Alcatraz underlies lawsuit hearing
Wenski has been critical of the state's treatment of immigrants, especially those being incarcerated at Alligator Alcatraz.
He visited the detention center July 20 with a group of about two dozen members of the Knights on Bikes, a group of the Knights of Columbus. After being denied entry, Wenski and the group prayed the rosary outside the facility.
"It almost seems to be an intentional effort to dehumanize these people," Wenski told the Florida Catholic in an interview published July 23.
"Offering Mass is an opportunity to humanize the detainee, to elevate their dignity and also to assure them that they are not forgotten by God," he said before the state granted the Church permission.
The detention center was opened by Gov. Ron DeSantis and is being managed by the Florida Division of Emergency Management in a partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. It can hold up to 3,000 people.
State officials nicknamed the facility after the closed island prison outside San Francisco to highlight its remoteness and difficulty to escape. Its official name is the South Florida Detention Facility and it could be operating for a year or longer.
Deportation flights from the location started last week, DeSantis said.
Critics have condemned the facility in federal court as cruel and inhumane, as well as a threat to the ecologically sensitive wetlands, while DeSantis and other Republican state officials have defended it as part of the state's aggressive push to support President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration.
"President Trump says he wants to control the borders, and he has done that; he wants to remove the bad actors, and he is doing that," Wenski said in the Florida Catholic interview. "He also says he wants the best economy in the world — but you can't have the best economy in the world without counting on the labor for the participation of immigrants. Otherwise, how are you going to maintain the growth of the economy?
South Florida has shown that immigration is ultimately a benefit to the larger community; immigrants are not a problem; they are an opportunity."
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