Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Detention Center Sparks Major Concern as Construction Begins: ‘An Obscene Human Rights Violation’

Florida has begun building a new migrant detention center deep in the Everglades, springing into action after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) approved the development. But activists and locals have already raised major concerns, citing environmental and human rights issues.

The detention facility, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” due to its location, was spearheaded by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, who said on Monday that the center is part of his aim to “support President Trump and [Homeland Security] Secretary Kristi Noem in their mission to fix our illegal immigration problem once and for all.”

The facility, located on an airstrip, will be used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to temporarily house migrants that are awaiting deportation. Currently, the site is equipped with “heavy duty” tents and trailers as the Florida summer is set to be even hotter than usual.

The DHS is partnering with Florida to fast-track construction. "We are working at turbo speed on cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people’s mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens," Noem told TIME in an emailed statement.

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Meanwhile, Uthmeier discussed the center during an appearance on The Benny Show podcast on June 23, sharing that the goal is to build 5,000 beds by early July. He says the construction will be minimal, since the center is in the middle of the Everglades—a national park wetland in South Florida filled with alligators, snakes, and mosquitos. “We don't need to build a lot of brick and mortar… thankfully. Mother Nature does a lot on the perimeter,” he said regarding security efforts. 

An announcement video posted by Uthmeier features slow-motion footage of snapping alligators.

Pictures of the site show the construction beginning on the environmentally-sensitive land, most recently known to be owned by Miami-Dade County, as law enforcement led in trucks carrying portable restrooms and industrial generators. According to the DHS, the facility will run at a cost of about $450 million a year, with the ability to seek reimbursement from the federal government, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has roughly $625 million in Shelter and Services Program funds that could potentially be allocated for this effort. This is a budget that’s already been “slashed and burned,” though, says Patrick Eddington, a policy analyst in national security and civil liberties at the Cato Institute.

The facility is being built at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, which Uthmeier describes as a “virtually abandoned airfield.” Activists do not agree.

On June 27, the activist group Friends of Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit against the DHS, ICE, the Florida Division of Emergency Management, and Miami-Dade County.

“This scheme is not only cruel, it threatens the Everglades ecosystem that state and federal taxpayers have spent billions to protect,” said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, in a press release announcing the legal action. “Friends of the Everglades was founded by Marjory Stoneman Douglas in 1969 to stop harmful development at this very location. 56 years later, the threat has returned—and it poses another existential threat to the Everglades.”

Protesters led by the Native American community in the area lined up along U.S. Highway 41 on June 28, to show their disapproval of the detention center. As they rallied, construction trucks passed in the background.

“It’s disrupting the circle of life that these animals need,” Betty Osceola, a member of the Miccosukee Tribe, told local reporters.

On June 22, protesters had appeared at the Everglades to rally against the construction plans, as environmental activists emphasized that the wetlands form part of a protected and sensitive ecosystem. Jared Jacobs, a member of the Love The Everglades Movement, told local media at the demonstration: “[Alligator Alatraz] is not good for our people, it's not good for our environment, it's not good for our quality of life.”

Calling the center an "embarrassment" for South Florida and the country, he said: "It's a trigger… of a much deeper systemic problem and we're seeing it here being built literally in the middle of our Everglades right next to the Miccosukee [Tribe] homelands.”

The protest was organized by Friends of Everglades, alongside the Miccosukee tribe, who are native to the Florida region. One Miccosukkee Business Council member, Talbert Cypress, said via social media that the tribe strongly opposes the center, highlighting how it is set to be built next to 19 traditional Miccosukee and Seminole villages, as well as the Congressionally-authorized Miccosukee Reserved Area.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has also expressed concern about the project, and asked for more details about the potential environmental impact on the Everglades, saying that it would require “considerable review and due diligence.”

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Nayna Gupta, policy director at the American Immigration Council, says the project should “shock the conscience" of many people, not just for the environmental impact, but due to the human rights implications, as well.

“This is the State of Florida essentially building its own parallel detention and enforcement system to match Trump's mass deportation agenda,” Gupta says. “This is an obscene human rights violation to even attempt to build a facility in these conditions, but it's particularly egregious when, right now, immigration detention facilities around the country are facing overcrowding and [other] poor conditions.”

Dwight Bullard, a former State Senator and senior policy advisor at the nonprofit Florida Rising, says the organization is wholly against the building of the detention center, also citing humanitarian and environmental concerns. He says the state, even under Republican leadership, has been looking to “restore the Everglades,” particularly because of its importance in the area’s water system. 

“The building of this facility smack dab in the middle of it will have a detrimental impact environmentally on the state, on the region for Miami-Dade, in particular—you're talking about a direct impact on our water usage in a county that's home to around three million residents,” Bullard said.

Gupta notes that ICE facilities already are fielding concerns of crowded detention facilities, and with a state-run facility in an area that is notably hard to reach, she worries those problems will only worsen. Gupta cites potential problems such as “excessive heat temperatures,” noting a concern in how such matters would be addressed.

Bullard argues it’s “absurd” that Gov. Ron DeSantis and his team would build a facility in one of the “hottest parts of the state,” especially as civil rights organizations have already raised the alarm over detention facilities in Florida.

“The moniker of ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ shows you the level of carelessness that the DeSantis Administration has for the folks that they intend on housing,” Bullard says.

On June 27, Gov. DeSantis took Fox News on a tour of the site, stating that the center will feature air conditioning, medical facilities, and opportunities for legal aid. “It’s being done right; it’s being done by the books,” DeSantis said.

Meanwhile, Eddington of the Cato Institute points to instances in which Congressional oversight has been a point of tension at federally-run facilities, including the recent arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka who was detained after attempting to inspect Delaney Hall, a privately-run federal immigration detention center that, in March, he accused of violating safety protocols. 

Eddington is particularly concerned about whether or not this new facility in Florida will be used as a “blueprint” for what the Trump Administration may possibly seek to replicate in other red states.

“An awful lot of red-state governors seem eager to one-up each other in supporting what Trump is doing right now, and this is obviously quite a leap by the DeSantis Administration,” he argues, adding that MAGA republicans may be looking to “brandish [their] anti-immigrant credentials.”