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Florida started construction this week on a 1,000-bed detention facility for undocumented immigrants in the middle of the Everglades, despite objections from local officials and environmentalists who say it will harm protected wetlands that the state and federal government have spent billions to restore.
The plan will turn an infrequently used airstrip next to Big Cypress National Preserve, a portion of the Everglades, into a "temporary" detention facility, according to Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (R).
"Alligator Alcatraz: the one-stop shop to carry out President Trump's mass deportation agenda," Uthmeier said in a campaign-style video touting the idea, which was posted on his social media accounts last week.
"People get out, there's not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons. Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide," Uthmeier said in the video.
The Everglades detention center, which could open in a matter of days, will be one of several new sites in Florida that will house up to 5,000 detainees, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will also be able to transfer detainees to those facilities, according to DHS. The state can be reimbursed for the estimated $450 million cost of the detention centers by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to DHS.
"Under President Trump's leadership, 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," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said in a statement. "We will expand facilities and bed space in just days, thanks to our partnership with Florida."
Environmentalists immediately objected to the plan to set up what Uthmeier has described as "heavy-duty" tents to house undocumented immigrants in one of the country's most prized natural areas. More than 300 people traveled to the site Sunday afternoon to protest the facility, according to organizers.
"If you get a thousand-bed prison in there, whether it's supposedly temporary or not, you're going to have impacts related to human waste, sewage needs, water supply needs, ancillary development," said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, whose South Florida district abuts the Everglades, called the plan cruel.
"We can't allow DeSantis to auction off Florida's crown jewel in service to Trump's vicious anti-immigrant cruelty," Wasserman Schultz (D) said about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in an emailed statement.
The facility will be built at Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, midway between Miami and Naples, and north of the Tamiami Trail, a two-lane highway that cuts through the Everglades.
The state and federal government have spent 35 years and more than $10 billion to restore the natural flow of water to the Everglades, which is the largest remaining subtropical wilderness in the United States. The vast wetlands is home to dozens of threatened or endangered species, including American flamingos, manatees, American crocodiles and wood storks.
It's also critical to the water supply for more than 8 million people in South Florida.
The state offered Miami-Dade County, which owns the land, $20 million for the property. But Mayor Daniella Levine Cava (D) responded that the land is worth at least $190 million, citing a recent appraisal.
"The impacts to the Everglades ecosystem could be devastating," Levine Cava said Monday in a letter to Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
Levine Cava's $190 million estimate is "an unreasonable counteroffer," according to a statement from the governor's office.
The state will invoke its emergency powers to seize the property, Guthrie said Tuesday in an email to Levine Cava.
"While the negotiations to purchase the property are underway, the Division will begin immediate utilization of the improved area of the site," Guthrie said in the email.
Among other locations being considered for detention centers is Camp Blanding Joint Training Center in northern Florida, according to a state operations plan.
"Governor DeSantis has insisted that the state of Florida, under his leadership, will facilitate the federal government in enforcing immigration law," Bryan Griffin, communications director for DeSantis, said in an email. "Utilizing this space and/or others around the state, Florida will continue to lead in immigration enforcement."
The governor is eager to assist Trump's immigration plans. Earlier this year, he signed a law making it a crime for people in the country illegally to enter Florida. The law is being challenged in court. In April, state law enforcement officials assisted federal agents in arresting more than 1,100 migrants within a week during a sweeping immigration operation. More than 590,000 unauthorized people are in Florida, according to DHS.
Construction of the Everglades site has already begun, Uthmeier said Monday in a podcast interview with "The Benny Show."
"We'll have some light infrastructure, a lot of heavy-duty tent facilities, trailer facilities," Uthmeier told host Benny Johnson. "We don't need to build a lot of brick and mortar."
No vegetation will be removed to erect the Everglades detention center, and a permanent structure won't be built, according to a statement from the governor's office.
The state will also use old FEMA trailers at the site, DHS said in a statement. "These trailers have been renovated by Florida," the statement said. "Very low-cost option."
The Florida Department of Emergency Management, which is building the facility, will bring in water with 2,000- and 6,000-gallon tanker trucks, according to a plan released by the agency. The goal is to "fully eliminate the potential for environmental issues related to waste production, solid waste management, recycling, construction and demolition debris, and potable water management," according to the plan.
The site of the facility in the Everglades was the subject of one of Florida's most significant environmental battles. In the 1960s, business and political leaders wanted to build the largest airport in the world, hoping to increase tourism to South Florida.
The plan for Everglades Jetport was met with fierce opposition from many residents and environmentalists. It failed in 1970, when President Richard M. Nixon signed an agreement with the state that halted construction. Nixon called the agreement "an outstanding victory for conservation."
A 10,000-foot-long runway had already been built, but the strip of asphalt, owned by Miami-Dade County, has been used only for commercial and military flight training.
"All the reasons that it was a bad idea back then still exist today," said Samples, of Friends of the Everglades.
Betty Osceola, who lives about three miles from the site, said she remembers attending meetings in the 1960s about the plan to build an airport.
"There was never a thought in my mind that we would have to fight this battle again," said Osceola, a member of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and an environmental activist.
She said she doesn't see many planes using the area, but hikers and anglers often use the property.
"This is a beautiful landscape full of cypress trees, cabbage palm trees, with wading birds and deer, bobcats, coyotes, even the occasional bear," Osceola said.
When Big Cypress National Preserve was created out of historically Indigenous territory, native tribes, including the Miccosukee and Seminoles, were given the right to continue to use it. Tribe members are permitted to live in the protected areas and fish and hunt without a license.
"We're supposed to have a voice, but no tribal consultation has occurred," Osceola said about the detention center.