Statement on Laura Loomer’s 6/30 Remarks

The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security condemns far right activist and Trump associate Laura Loomer’s praise for Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” migrant detention center.

On June 30, 2025 Loomer remarked on X (formerly Twitter) that “Alligator lives matter. The good news is, alligators are guaranteed at least 65 million meals if we get started now.”

The Lemkin Institute has learned to take all leaders and their associates at their word. Given Loomer’s close proximity to President Trump, influence over national security policy, and this administration’s tendency to downplay the seriousness of its actions as demonstrated through its merchandising of detention centers and AI meme campaigns, the Lemkin Institute certainly cannot ignore her remarks or the administration’s tacit approval of them.

To underscore the seriousness of Loomer’s grotesque social media post, census data gathered by the Pew Research Center and The Bureau of Statistics both show roughly 62.5 million Latin Americans live in the United States as of 2021. Meanwhile, the American Immigration Council finds the total population of undocumented immigrants in the United States to be 11 million.

The Lemkin Institute considers Loomer’s remark to be a threat to all people of Latin American heritage in the United States, regardless of their legal status, and calls upon governments and global civil society to take these remarks very seriously by engaging in discussion of emergency plans for dealing with a United States that increasingly seems to be descending into a genocidal form of fascism. We remind everyone that cruel “jokes” like Loomer’s are a common feature of genocidal ideology. There is no shortage of harrowing testimony of conditions in ICE facilities within and outside the United States. Recently released detainees such as Ward Sekeik and Mohsen Madhawi describe being treated like cattle and deprived of food and water at multiple detention centers. A Human Rights Watch report recently found that detainees at a Miami ICE detention facility were forced to kneel on the floor and eat “like dogs.”

Iris Dayana Monterroso-Lemus’ testimony of conditions at the Richwood detention center in Louisiana demonstrates this administration’s blatant disregard for human life, as does Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s testimony of conditions in El Salvador’s CECOT, the prison where President Trump hopes to deport untold numbers of citizens and noncitizens.

Loomer’s statement and the Trump Administration’s tacit approval of it are conscious acts of commitment to mass atrocity and must be recognized and addressed for what they are.