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🇵🇾 Paraguay /Crime & Justice

Two guards at Florida migrant detention center charged with assault

From ABC Color · () 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 pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor assault charges tied to an alleged January attack on Cuban detainee Rigoberto Rodríguez Arce.
  • A detainee witness alleged that Trejos threw Rodríguez to the floor and struck him, while Seenaraine later punched him; Trejos’s defense cited security footage and alleged that Rodríguez had spit at the guard.
  • Both defendants were released on $1,000 bail, and the cases remain open amid wider allegations about conditions in U.S. migrant detention centers.

Two former guards at a controversial migrant detention center in Florida face assault charges over an alleged attack on a Cuban detainee, months after the facility closed.

Stephen Trejos and Andre Seenaraine pleaded not guilty to separate first-degree misdemeanor assault charges related to an incident involving 42-year-old Rigoberto Rodríguez Arce on Jan. 25. The facility became known as the “Alcatraz of the Alligators” because it stood in the swampy Everglades, an area home to alligators and pythons. It closed in June.

Rodríguez had been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Dec. 9. After the alleged attack, officials transferred him to Camp East Montana, a migrant detention center near El Paso, Texas. Frank Rivera, another detainee who said he witnessed the incident, told local broadcaster WINK News that dozens of detainees began banging their handcuffs against metal benches after 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. Rodríguez’s attorney, Yaritssa Plasencia, told the same outlet that her client arrived at Camp East Montana with a bloodstained uniform, a bandaged hand and a bruised eye.

Trejos’s defense, in a motion to dismiss cited by local media, said security footage showed the guard using a control maneuver after Rodríguez allegedly spat at him. Florida’s Department of Law Enforcement investigated the incident, and a Collier County judge authorized arrest warrants on June 24. Both men were released after posting $1,000 bail, while the proceedings continue. 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 said detainees receive adequate care.

Alcatraz of the Alligators

· Local nicknameThe name used for the Florida detention center because of its location in the Everglades.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Color 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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