Florida officials are turning an airfield in the Everglades into a migrant detention center, nicknaming it "Alligator Alcatraz" due to its proximity to the apex predators.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier proposed the project last week, saying in a video posted to X that, in support of the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had asked state leaders to identify places for temporary detention facilities.
"I think this is the best one, as I call it: Alligator Alcatraz," Uthmeier said, referencing the infamous prison island in San Francisco Bay.
"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," he said. "If people get out, there's not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons."
The site of the proposed facility is the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, located along the eastern boundary of the Big Cypress National Preserve and some 55 miles west of Miami. The state originally intended for it to become the "Everglades Jetport" — envisioned as the largest airport in the world — but halted development in the 1970s over environmental concerns.
These days, its sole 10,500-foot long runway is primarily used as a precision-instrument landing and training facility, according to Miami International Airport. Uthmeier described the site as "virtually abandoned."
He got the green light within days.
Uthmeier told the right-wing podcast The Benny Show on Monday that the federal government had approved his plan that morning, with the facility on track to open the first week of July. He said it would have 5,000 beds — half of its total capacity — by "early July."
"Alligator Alcatraz will expand facilities and bed space in just days, thanks to our partnership with Florida," the Department of Homeland Security later wrote on X.
But not everyone is on board.
Environmental organizations and immigration advocates have expressed concerns about multiple aspects of the project, from the potential consequences on the fragile Everglades ecosystem to the well-being of the people who will be detained there, especially in the hot summer months.
Several hundred locals gathered outside the property gates on Sunday to protest the detention center and call for the protection of the land, stressing its special significance to Native Americans as well as conservationists, according to member station WGCU.
On Monday, 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 its plans for the facility — particularly about the environmental impact, which she said "could be devastating."
Levine Cava wrote that "the conveyance of this parcel requires considerable review and due diligence before actions can be taken that could have significant long-term impact to our community," member station WLRN reports.
NPR has reached out to Uthmeier's office for comment. When asked about those concerns, and what a potential review process might look like, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) referred NPR to a statement by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
"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," Noem said.
What do we know about the facility?
Uthmeier on The Benny Show said the facility will house migrants apprehended in Florida and around the country, as its runway can accommodate big planes. He said the National Guard will be on site, and authorities will "give them the due process that all the courts say they need on their way out."
The setup will mostly involve "heavy-duty tent" and trailer facilities, he added.
"We don't need to build a lot of brick and mortar … it will be temporary and thankfully Mother Nature does a lot on the perimeter," he said. "We'll have a little bit of additions needed, but there's really nowhere to go. If you're housed there, if you're detained there, there's no way in, no way out."
That's sounding alarm bells for some immigration advocates.
Nayna Gupta, the policy director at American Immigration Council, wrote on social media that people will be held in a facility "surrounded by alligators and snakes in dangerous heat with NO oversight."
Alex Howard, a former DHS spokesperson under former President Joe Biden — and a native Floridian — called the project "DeSantis' Little Guantanamo in the swamp," and a "grotesque mix of cruelty and political theater."
"You don't solve immigration by disappearing people into tents guarded by gators," he told NPR over email. "You solve it with lawful processing (like humanitarian parole, [Temporary Protected Status], humane infrastructure, and actual policy — not by staging a $450 million stunt in the middle of hurricane season."
Who's paying for the project?
Noem said in a statement that the project will be funded "in large part" by FEMA's Shelter and Services Program.
The program was created in late 2022 to help cover some of the costs for communities sheltering migrants who have been released by DHS and are awaiting court hearings. It provided reimbursements to state and local governments, as well as nonprofits, in 35 communities throughout fiscal years 2023 and 2024, according to the American Immigration Council.
DHS told NPR that running the facility will cost Florida some $450 million for one year, and that the state can submit reimbursement requests to FEMA — which has roughly $625 million in Shelter and Services Program funds that it can allocate for the project.
There's also the question of buying the land. The Miami Herald reports that state and county officials are currently negotiating the purchase, with the Florida government offering to pay $20 million for the property.
What are the environmental concerns?
The Dade-Collier Airport is located within the Everglades, a subtropical wetland ecosystem stretching across two million acres of central and south Florida.
The area is known for its wetlands — which are crucial to the state's irrigation and drinking water systems — and wildlife, with hundreds of species of birds as well as creatures like alligators, crocodiles, panthers and manatees.
Over the years, urban and agricultural development, invasive species and climate change have all threatened the size and health of the Everglades — and fueled a movement to protect it.
One such group, Friends of the Everglades, is already campaigning against "Alligator Alcatraz," saying the land in question is "part of one of the most fragile ecosystems in the country" and "deserves lasting protection."
Conservationists hope Floridians can come together to block the detention center, just as they rallied successfully to stop the development of the Everglades Jetport half a century ago.
When work began in 1968, state officials envisioned an airport five times bigger than New York's JFK International Airport, with six runways and a monorail, according to the National Park Service. As part of the project, the Department of the Interior tasked hydrologist Luna Leopold with researching the environmental impacts of the construction.
Leopold's report, published the following year, asserted that developing the jetport "will lead to land drainage and development for agriculture, transportation, and services in the Big Cypress Swamp which will inexorably destroy the south Florida ecosystem and thus the Everglades National Park."
Armed with those findings, a coalition of hunters, conservationists and concerned citizens successfully pressured authorities to search for another location for the jetport. Work was halted in 1970, and President Gerald Ford designated Big Cypress National Preserve as the country's first national preserve in 1971.
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