Florida is developing an immigration detention centre deep in the Everglades that will be known as “Alligator Alcatraz".
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier proposed the project on X in response to the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis asked leaders to identify places for temporary detention facilities.
"This 30-square mile area is completely surrounded by the Everglades. It presents an efficient, low-cost opportunity to build a temporary detention facility because you don't need to invest that much in the perimeter," Uthmeier said.
"If people get out, there's not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons."
Uthmeier got the green light within days, with the facility on track to open in the first week of July with 5,000 beds.
“We are working on cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people’s mandate for mass deportations,” the Department of Homeland Security said on X.
The facility is to be built at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport and is set to cost around US$450 million to run.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the facility will be largely funded by FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program.
Alligator Alcatraz will expand facilities and bed space in just days, thanks to our partnership with Florida.
The site has been met with backlash from both environmental organisations and immigration advocates.
It was initially intended to become the “Everglades Jetport’ but the project was halted in the 1970s due to environmental concerns, and there are concerns that Alligator Alcatraz could have negative impacts on the Everglades' fragile ecosystem.
Hundreds of people have protested the detention centre, calling for protection of the land, stressing its significance to Native Americans and conservationists.
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava wrote a letter to the Florida Division of Emergency Management asking the state to slow down and provide more information on the environmental impact of the project.
Friends of the Everglades executive director Eve Samples said they would consider all options when asked if the state’s actions, under a 2023 executive order dealing with immigration, are legal.
Samples said more than 4,000 people have responded to her group’s alert asking the governor to halt the project.
“There is just no way you can claim to be an Everglades advocate and let this proposal for a prison in the Everglades move forward,” Samples said.
“The two are mutually exclusive.”
