COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. — Protesters gathered outside a controversial airport-turned-detention center, raising concerns about environmental impact and due process for immigrants.
Mae'Anna Oseola-Hart lives less than half a mile from the facility. She says for the past eight days, she and her family have been kept awake all night.
Senior Reporter Emily Young talked to protesters and supporters:
"Me and my family can hear the semi trucks driving all day and all night up and down the road, so imagine how the wildlife are, imagine how confused they are you know?" Oseola-Hart said.
But she worries that will not be the only disruption to the delicate ecosystem around the facility.
"This will cause water pollution, light pollution, noise pollution…everything," Oseola-Hart said.
Holden Manning drove from Naples to be at the protest.
"One of our friends had a sign that said where will the waste of 5,000 people go," Manning said.
Manning was front and center at the protests, leading chants and voicing concerns about constitutional rights.
"Every immigrant, documented or undocumented it says in the constitution everyone on US soil gets due process, so if you believe in the constitution you got to stand up," Manning said.
The facility is also built on the ancestral land of the Seminole and Miccosukee Tribe—and they see the detention center as just another violation of their sovereignty. For Oseola-Hart, a member of the Seminole Tribe, this is history repeating itself. She says her grandfather protested the development of the airport back in the 1960s.
"He'd be disappointed, his work is going to waste, he fought against that and look at what's happening now," Oseola-Hart said.
While there was a smaller number of people who came to support the facility, their message was just as clear.
"I think it's a great idea. I think we have to have lots of places, there's 20 million people we have to deal with. Where you going to put them? So this is an opportunity; they will be in air conditioning, three meals a day. And when you find out if there good or bad, and the ones that are bad will get out," one supporter said.
Protesters say they will not stop and will continue to protest. They hope the lawsuit is successful in getting an injunction to stop activity at the facility.
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