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🇦🇷 Argentina /Crime & Justice

Two guards at Florida migrant detention center charged with assault

From Clarín · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources In the courts
  • Former guards Stephen Trejos and Andre Seenaraine face misdemeanor assault charges over an alleged January attack on Cuban detainee Rigoberto Rodríguez Arce.
  • A fellow detainee described protesters striking their restraints against benches after going without food and water, while Trejos’s defense says security footage shows a control maneuver.
  • Both men pleaded not guilty, posted $1,000 bond and remain subject to ongoing proceedings.

Two former guards at a controversial migrant detention center in Florida face charges over the alleged assault of a Cuban man held there. The facility, popularly known as the “Alligator Alcatraz” because it stood in the swampy Everglades, closed in June.

Stephen Trejos and Andre Seenaraine pleaded not guilty to separate counts of physical assault, a first-degree misdemeanor in Florida. The charges concern an incident on Jan. 25 involving 42-year-old Rigoberto Rodríguez Arce, who ICE detained on Dec. 9. After the alleged attack, authorities transferred him to Camp East Montana, a migrant detention facility near El Paso, Texas.

Frank Rivera, another detainee and a witness, told local broadcaster WINK News that dozens of detainees began striking their restraints against metal benches to protest spending hours without food or water. Rivera said Trejos lifted Rodríguez, threw him to the floor and began hitting him. He said Seenaraine later punched Rodríguez in the face in another part of the facility.

Yaritssa Plasencia, Rodríguez’s lawyer, told the broadcaster that her client arrived at Camp East Montana with a blood-stained uniform, a bandaged hand and a bruised eye. Trejos’s defense has sought dismissal, arguing that security footage shows the guard using a control technique after Rodríguez allegedly spat at him.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigated the incident, and a Collier County judge authorized arrest warrants on June 24. Both defendants were released after posting $1,000 bond, and their cases remain open. Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union have documented allegations of beatings, medical neglect and unsanitary conditions in migrant detention centers during Donald Trump’s second term. The Department of Homeland Security has rejected those allegations and says detainees receive adequate care.

Decades of detainees began striking their restraints against metal benches to protest spending hours without food or water.

· Frank RiveraA detainee and witness described the protest that preceded the alleged assault.
About this summary

Originally published by Clarín in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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