Culture Commentary: Homemade and Despicable
By Debra Cash
So now, along with hand-made candles, jewelry, and home goods, Etsy customers can sport tees, caps and download stickers with Alligator Alcatraz names and images.

Interior of Alligator Alcatraz, July, 2025. Photo: WikiMedia
The commercialization of everything often feels inevitable, but the latest MAGAworld incursion into the Kumbaya, small-world-after-all ethic of Etsy — the platform originally designed for independent artisans — is especially appalling.
As of today, there are more than 1,000 items associated with the search term “Alligator Alcatraz” — Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s nickname for the center being built in the Florida Everglades, intended to hold up to 5,000 detainees.
Let’s be clear: “Alligator Alcatraz” is a concentration camp.
I don’t have to remind readers of The Arts Fuse that it is estimated only 8 percent of the men, women, and children swept up by ICE have criminal records of any kind (being undocumented is a misdemeanor, not a felony), and that virtually none of these abducted people have been able to defend themselves under the due process clause enshrined in the US Constitution.
Now, alongside handmade candles, jewelry, and home goods, Etsy customers can sport tees, caps, and download stickers featuring “Alligator Alcatraz” names and images.
Remember the “Camp Auschwitz” tee worn by one of the January 6 rioters who breached the Capitol to stop the certification of the 2020 election? Me, too.
None of this is funny. None of it is acceptable.
Folks are welcome to their free speech, but Etsy has no obligation to be the conduit for the distribution of vile and heartless merchandise.
I wrote to Etsy Chief Executive Officer Josh Silverman, noting that a company with a reputation for supporting small makers and building an inclusive workforce must do better. I also cc’d his press office, told him I was going to the press, and here I am.
You can write to Etsy as well — the email I used was jsilverman [at] etsy [dot] com, and you can, too. According to writer Amy Siskind, from whom I learned of this abomination, many makers and customers on Etsy are boycotting the platform until this merchandise is taken down.
It’s not as if Etsy is alone: since February, customers have been complaining to Amazon about the sale of fake ICE and police uniforms for “cosplay.” Now, after Minneapolis state rep Melissa Hortman, her husband, and her dog were assassinated by a person disguised as a cop, there is even less excuse for distributing this kind of merchandise. (It’s illegal to impersonate a law enforcement official.)
But I imagine I am not alone in thinking that Josh Silverman — who, as far as I know, did not stand with a bunch of tech billionaires at Trump’s inauguration — will be more responsive to public outrage than Jeff Bezos.
Vote with your pocketbook while you are fighting the assault on our immigrant neighbors.
Debra Cash is a Founding Contributing Writer to the Arts Fuse and a member of its Board.