On Tuesday, federal officials announced that an immigration detention center set on a remote Everglades airstrip encircled by swamplands teeming with alligators, pythons, and mosquitoes will soon be open for business.
Building a compound of sturdy tents, trailers, and temporary structures resembling those utilized during natural catastrophes, officials in Florida are hastily constructing what they’ve called “Alligator Alcatraz” to aid in the implementation of President Trump’s mass deportation goal.
Environmentalists and human rights activists are worried about the facility’s planned development in a vulnerable wetland around 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of downtown Miami. They have condemned the scheme as cruel and inhumane.
More than 56,000 aliens were detained in June, the highest amount since 2019, according to state officials, who claim the installation is essential in support of the federal government’s immigration operation.
Pay attention to this.
5,000 beds for inmates by the beginning of July
Attorney General James Uthmeier, a former chief of staff for Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and a key architect of the state’s aggressive immigration enforcement campaign, claims that the site will be constructed during the dog days of summer as part of the state’s plan to operationalize 5,000 beds for immigration detention by early July. In 2022, Uthmeier assisted in arranging for about fifty Venezuelans to be flown to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, on state-funded flights.
Officials in Florida believe that the remote Everglades airport, with its almost 10,500-foot (3,200-meter) runway, is the perfect place to accommodate and transport migrants because to the severe circumstances around it.
Uthmeier told conservative media analyst Benny Johnson, “We don’t need to build a lot of brick and mortar.” in an interview. “Fortunately, there’s a lot that Mother Nature does around the edges.”
It’s not like there’s anywhere to go. There is no way in or out if you are housed or imprisoned there, Uthmeier continued.
With the current 41,000 beds, the Trump administration aims to increase the number of beds for holding migrants to at least 100,000.
The U.S. House of Representatives adopted a tax-cutting and budget-reconciliation package last month, which contains $45 billion over four years for immigration detention, a spending rise of three times the original amount. Current discussions in the Senate are focused on the bill.
Opponents of the idea include Democrats and activists
The same plot of land was fought over by environmentalists, including the renowned Marjory Stoneman Douglas, almost half a century ago, in an effort to prevent its development into the world’s biggest airport.
In response to what some have called a state-backed “heist,” people are already organizing to put a stop to it.
One of the most delicate ecosystems in the nation is this area, which is encircled by Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve, according to a statement given by Friends of the Everglades, an advocacy group. “We must learn from our previous errors. This area should be preserved for the long haul.
Maxwell Frost, a Democrat from Florida, denounced the prison camp, describing the apparent use of alligators as a form of security as a “cruel spectacle.”
In a statement, Frost stated, “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.” The statement stated that the administration has a profound dislike for immigrants and is using them as a scapegoat for the real problems that Americans are facing.
According to Maria Asuncion Bilbao, a campaign organizer for the immigration advocacy group American Friends Service Committee in Florida, inmates’ health and safety are being jeopardized.
According to Bilbao, “the level of dehumanization” is rather alarming. “Theaterized cruelty, if you will.”
Bilbao, who is in charge of a group of immigration advocates that assist immigrants at a South Florida ICE office, expressed her worries about the heat and mosquitoes, as well as the difficulties that locals may have due to the site’s isolation if they wish to demonstrate or keep tabs on what’s happening there.
It has the support of DHS.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials have praised the initiative and the department’s “partnership with Florida.”
The new facility will be mostly sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is most famous for its response to hurricanes and other natural disasters; Secretary Kristi Noem of the Department of Homeland Security announced this.
“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 aliens,” Noem said in a written statement sent to the AP. Our new facilities and sleeping quarters will be ready in a matter of days.
Costing about $450 million annually, or $245 per bed per day, the facility will be managed “via a team of vendors,” according to a U.S. official. Florida will cover the costs and get its money back from FEMA’s $625 million shelter and service program fund.
The facility will house immigrants detained by ICE and those apprehended by Florida law enforcement agencies participating in the federal 287 (g) program.
Local and state law enforcement officials are authorized to question and hold immigrants in their custody under the reinstated 287 (g) program, which might lead to their deportation.
More than 280 agreements, or over a third of the 720 agreements obtained countrywide, have been signed by agencies throughout all 67 counties in Florida.
To construct the facility, Florida is making use of its emergency authorities.
During the presidency of former president Joe Biden, DeSantis issued an executive order to address what he perceived as a crisis created by illegal immigration. As a result, state officials are utilizing their state emergency powers to seize the property.
Despite protests from Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, activist groups in the region, and tribal leaders from Native American communities who regard the site as holy, building on county-owned property is proceeding in Florida.
According to Fried, the state is abusing its power by using executive orders to bypass buying restrictions and speed up the project.
The authority to suspend “any statute, rule, or order” deemed as impeding the response to the emergency and the power to assign specific law enforcement officers from throughout the state to his “direct command and coordination” are among the extensive powers bestowed upon Kevin Guthrie, the state’s chief emergency manager, by the orders.
“A DeSantis spokeswoman stated that “Governor DeSantis has stressed that the state of Florida, under his leadership, will support the federal government in implementing immigration law.” The comment was made by the governor’s spokesperson.
To this day, Florida’s immigration enforcement policies remain unparalleled.