In response, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has declared an emergency. He is currently establishing a controversial deportation camp in the Everglades, execution-style, which he dubs “Alligator Alcatraz.” This program was rolled out in direct response to criticism surrounding immigration enforcement practices. It has ignited a firestorm of protest from environmental organizations, immigration rights advocates, and area tribes. The facility sprawls over a huge 39-square-mile area that the Port Authority confiscated from Miami-Dade County. It is meant to hold as many as 5,000 detainees in canvas tents and is slated to open in the first week of July.
The site is home to a largely abandoned military training airfield. It will be central to the Trump administration’s promise to detain and deport 3,000 undocumented migrants a day. The construction, in addition to Florida taxpayer funds, is paid for with money from the Department of Homeland Security. Environmentalists say the project would threaten years of progress that had been made through painstaking restoration work established in the Everglades.
James Uthmeier, Florida’s attorney general, finds himself the target of civil contempt charges by a federal judge. Those charges come from his choice to stop enforcing a bad state immigration law. This new legal quagmire now complicates the approval and construction of the new facility. Ever since the 1960s, the environmental impact of the site has been an issue. Development was considered unacceptable on the land due to its valuable and rare ecosystem.
Surrounded by marshes and wetlands teeming with alligators, Burmese pythons, and swarms of mosquitoes, the location presents numerous challenges for those confined within. During a heat wave in July, the local temperature frequently exceeds 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius). Given these conditions, we should have never placed hundreds of detainees in tents with no running water.
Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, tweeted her opposition to the project.
“All the reasons this was terrible back then still exist today.” – Eve Samples
The possible environmental consequences have drawn fierce criticism from a number of environmentalist advocacy groups. Maxwell Frost, the prominent immigration rights activist, candidate and now congressman, blasted the plan in the strongest terms.
“Donald Trump, his administration, and his enablers have made one thing brutally clear: they intend to use the power of government to kidnap, brutalize, starve, and harm every single immigrant they can.” – Maxwell Frost
National and local leaders have fiercely opposed the facility, due to its potential impact. Daniella Levine Cava, Mayor of Miami-Dade County, said the project would provide a
“They target migrants, rip families apart, and subject people to conditions that amount to physical and psychological torture. Now, they want to erect tents in the blazing Everglades sun and call it immigration enforcement.” – Maxwell Frost
Uthmeier stood by the effort, arguing that it serves the interests of the state in addition to Florida’s environmental peculiarities.
“potentially devastating impact to the Everglades.” – Daniella Levine Cava
Opponents counter that other sites where significant infrastructure is already in place would better accommodate such a facility. Talbert Cypress, a member of the nearby Miccosukee Tribe, pointed out this way of thinking.
“We believe in the swamp down here in Florida. We are swamp creatures.” – James Uthmeier
Environmental groups opposed to the project have sounded the alarm on the project’s impacts on endangered species and other delicate habitats. Many are justly afraid that it would worsen environmental damage already caused by urban sprawl and undo decades of investment into Everglades restoration.
“The state would save substantial taxpayer dollars by pursuing its goals at a different location with more existing infrastructure and less environmental and cultural impacts to the Big Cypress and Tribal lands.” – Talbert Cypress
Thomas Kennedy, an advocate with the immigrant rights group American Friends Service Committee, noted the proposal for this facility seems to be politically driven.
As preparations continue for what many are calling an impractical and inhumane solution to immigration issues, stakeholders remain divided on its necessity and implications. The controversial construction project exposes deeper tensions over immigration policy in Florida and nationwide.
“He just always has to throw red meat to his base, always has to generate controversy and polarization.” – Thomas Kennedy
As preparations continue for what many are calling an impractical and inhumane solution to immigration issues, stakeholders remain divided on its necessity and implications. The construction project highlights broader tensions surrounding immigration policy in Florida and across the country.