COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. — Florida officials are moving quickly to convert an old airstrip deep in the Everglades into a new temporary migrant detention center — a project now nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz.”
On Wednesday, dozens of loaded trucks were seen entering the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, where Gov. Ron DeSantis has authorized emergency construction to help speed up deportations amid a federal crackdown.
WATCH AS TRUCKS ROLL INTO THE SITE IN THE EVERGLADES DUBBED ‘ALLIGATOR ALCATRAZ’:
"We had a request from the federal government to do it — and so, Alligator Alcatraz it is," DeSantis said at a Wednesday press conference in Tampa. "It'll be a force multiplier — it'll help DHS, it'll help our state and law enforcement by relieving some of the burden on resources," he added.
The site was originally planned to become the world’s largest airport in the 1960s, but the project was abandoned over environmental concerns and amid the collapse of the supersonic jet era. Today, only one runway remains, surrounded by swamp, alligators, and other wildlife. State leaders argue the remote location makes it an ideal site for a low-cost detention facility.
Many Environmental advocates, however, strongly oppose the plan.
“This proposal is not only deeply inhumane — but it is also profoundly irresponsible from an environmental, ethical, and fiscal standpoint,” said Javier Estevez of the Sierra Club.
Estevez also criticized what he called a contradiction between DeSantis' push for Everglades restoration and the construction of a detention center.
"The Everglades is not a staging area for mobile infrastructure," Estevez said. "It's a fragile and irreplaceable ecosystem — central to our heritage and Florida's future," he added.
The proposed facility is also located about a mile from Indigenous land. Garrett Stuart, a nearby resident and director of the Eco Preservation Project, said the land has historic significance.
“This site is why Republican President Nixon started the EPA. This is where Earth Day began,” Stuart said. “To give them this is like cutting off my own scalp and handing it to them," he said.
Responding to environmental concerns, DeSantis maintained the facility would be temporary without permanent construction.
"This thing's been used a bunch of times over many, many years — and so the impact will be zero. That's in keeping with our policy," DeSantis said.
Once operational, the facility is expected to cost more than $450 million annually and could house up to 5,000 people. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier says it is scheduled to open in early July.
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