Work has begun to transform an old airfield in the Florida Everglades into an immigration detention center, nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz." A rep for Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, an ally of President Trump who first proposed the idea, said work at the site began on Monday morning, per the New York Times. Officials intend to erect large tents and other facilities to house 1,000 migrants at a cost of $450 million per year, with the Federal Emergency Management Agency possibly contributing funding, said a Homeland Security rep who added the hope is that some tents could be up and functional by July.
President Trump hasn't publicly shared his view of the plan, though the Times notes he spoke in his first term about wanting to build a moat along the southern border to fill with alligators and snakes. Uthmeier noted the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport is surrounded by alligators and pythons to deter escapes. In a statement, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said "we are working at turbo speed on cost-effective and innovative ways" to deliver mass deportations and "we will expand facilities and bed space in just days, thanks to our partnership with Florida," per the BBC.
But immigration advocates have issues with the plan. That the administration is even considering the facility "on such a short timeline, with no obvious plan for how to adequately staff medical and other necessary services, in the middle of the Florida summer heat is demonstrative of their callous disregard for the health and safety of the human beings they intend to imprison there," Mark Fleming of the National Immigrant Justice Center tells the Times. Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, a Democrat, has also complained about "the rapid pace of the state's effort" and the potentially "devastating" environmental impacts. (More Florida stories.)
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