‘Alligator Alcatraz’: What to know about Florida’s new controversial migrant detention facility

CNN Deep in the marshy wetlands of the Florida Everglades less than miles west of President Donald Trump s resort in Miami sits the latest battleground in his administration s immigration enforcement efforts A makeshift detention facility dubbed Alligator Alcatraz In a matter of days workers transformed the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport from an -foot runway into a temporary tent city that Trump toured on Tuesday The facility has the quota to house up to asylum seekers with the ability to add more a Florida Division of Urgency Management official commented The Miami Herald Tampa Bay Times have obtained a list of over transients who have so far been detained at or may be scheduled to be sent to Alligator Alcatraz the news outlets broadcasted We had a request from the federal regime to create the facility and so Alligator Alcatraz it is Florida Gov Ron DeSantis reported at an earlier news conference adopting the nickname coined by his attorney general for the Everglades facility Clearly from a safeguard perspective if someone escapes there s a lot of alligators you re going to have to contend with DeSantis noted No one is going anywhere once you do that It s as safe and secure as you can be But while Republicans are touting it as a low cost facility fortified by Mother Nature the project has already sparked a backlash not only from immigration rights activists and environmentalists but also members of the state s Indigenous population who see the project as a threat to their sacred lands Here s what we know An Everglades Alcatraz Trump has long been enamored with the idea of reopening Alcatraz the famed island prison just off the San Francisco Bay known for being virtually inescapable Now Florida representatives have created their own Alcatraz at least temporarily An unassuming airstrip once built to serve supersonic jets but rapidly relegated to a training facility thrummed with activity late last month as tractor trailers unloaded supplies and construction crews worked in the thick humidity to finish building the detention facility Alligator-Alcatraz according to the governor s office is designed to be wholly self-contained Foreigners will be housed in repurposed FEMA trailers and soft-sided temporary facilities a Department of Homeland Safety official narrated CNN The same tents are often used to house those displaced by natural disasters like hurricanes DeSantis office revealed Indeed they will provide the only shelter from the elements as temperatures soar into the s and powerful storms move across the Everglades State officers declared they are advancing evacuation plans for the facility in the event of severe weather during what forecasters explained may be a busy hurricane season The facility as in the present built has a detainee maximum of up to people with room for additional limit Executive Director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management Kevin Guthrie announced in a current roundtable alongside Trump The DHS official however reported CNN the facility is expected to be able to house up to beds figures similar to those shared previously by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Utilities like water sewage and power will be provided by mobile equipment according to the governor s office During a tour of the site for Fox News DeSantis pointed out a number of large portable air conditioning units he disclosed will be used to cool structures on the site DeSantis stressed the facility is both temporary and necessary to alleviate burdens on the state s law enforcement agencies and jails which have seen an influx in foreigners amid the Trump administration s immigration crackdown The governor added he hopes the facility will be a force multiplier in the administration s increasing efforts to detain and deport undocumented immigrants Immigrant rights activists decry dehumanizing facility Members of Congress and state representatives were given a limited tour Saturday to inspect conditions at Alligator Alcatraz and broadcasted seeing hundreds of asylum seekers confined in cages amid sweltering heat bug infestations and meager meals They revealed they heard detainees shouting for help and crying out libertad Spanish for freedom They are essentially packed into cages wall-to-wall humans detainees per cage Rep Debbie Wasserman Schultz who represents Florida s th Congressional District mentioned during a news conference following their tour The families of chosen of the detainees have also decried conditions in the facility while Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureaucrats defend it as offering higher detention standards than various US prisons Alligator Alcatraz is expected to cost million to operate for a single year according to one DHS official who advised CNN Florida will front the costs of the facility and then submit reimbursement requests through FEMA and the Department of Homeland Protection As of late June more than immigrants were in ICE custody according to internal material obtained by CNN Several are detained in local jails because ICE has funding to house an average of people But arguments about quota have done little to quell the backlash from local immigration rights advocates who have accused the DeSantis administration of creating a facility engineered to enact suffering We ve been down this road before with Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County in Arizona where he had a tent city explained Thomas Kennedy a plan analyst for the Florida Immigrant Coalition The fact that we re going to have people detained in tents in the Everglades in the middle of the hot Florida summer during hurricane season this is a bad idea all around that requirements to be opposed and stopped Democrats and other immigrant-rights activists have also decried the detention facility as dehumanizing It s like a theatricalization of cruelty Maria Asuncion Bilbao Florida campaign coordinator at the immigration advocacy group American Friends System Committee previously communicated The Associated Press Kennedy commented he s been angered by Florida s Attorney General James Uthmeier who coined the phrase Alligator Alcatraz boasting in a video posted to X If people get out there s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons Leavitt similarly noted at a contemporary White House press briefing the alligators were a deterrent for them to try to escape When we talk about people as if they re vermin The location the manner in which it s done the dehumanizing language there s nothing about this detention camp that is not cruel and inhumane Kennedy commented Jeremy Redfern spokesperson for Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier described the expatriates being held at Alligator Alcatraz as monsters CNN affiliate KOMO broadcasted But over detainees unveiled on the list obtained by The Herald Times are being held only for immigration violations with no criminal convictions or pending charges in the US the news outlets released About a third of the facility s detainees have criminal convictions according to The Herald Times Charges against those detainees range from attempted murder and illegal reentry to traffic violations The Herald Times revealed While hundreds of others face only pending charges the records do not detail specific claims DeSantis promises zero impact on context Advocates are skeptical When it first opened the Dade-Collier airport originally known as the Everglades Jetway was meant to be five times the size of New York s JFK and an international hub for supersonic jets But it remained a little-used runway in the heart of the Everglades only open during business hours Environmental concerns have long hampered plans to expand the airport as efforts to preserve the marshlands which are a crucial source of freshwater for South Florida have routinely clashed with business interests The Miami-Dade Aviation Department had used the runway as a training facility for years But it changed in late June when the DeSantis administration invoked the governor s urgency powers to combat illegal immigration to begin this instant building a detention facility on the site The administration initially proposed purchasing the site from Miami-Dade County for million In a lengthy response to the proposal reviewed by CNN Mayor Daniella Levine Cava noted the figure was significantly lower than the greater part contemporary appraisal value of million She also signaled concerns about the environmental impact of housing thousands of people so close to a key source of Florida s drinking water Indeed environmental advocacy groups appear to share her concerns and several including Friends of the Everglades sued the DeSantis administration on June in an effort to halt the project At a news conference late last month the governor downplayed the lawsuit and touted his administration s efforts to restore the Everglades saying the facility would have zero impact on the circumstances I think people are just trying to use the Everglades as a pretext just for the fact that they oppose immigration enforcement he announced Tribal members are standing up for our home Betty Osceola documented the rapid construction of Alligator Alcatraz for her followers on social media and she was among those protesting along Highway last month as construction crews made their way to the site But for Osceola this fight in particular feels personal She s a member of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida whose lands are adjacent to the airport and runway The environmental activist stood at the gates of the Dade-Collier airport last month and glared at the bustling construction site She narrated CNN the temporary detention facility is being built on land sacred to her people calling it an affront When I first heard about it I thought Is this a joke But then construction crews began arriving in droves less than miles from her home I was particularly upset when they noted Nobody lives out here it s not going to inconvenience anybody she announced adding she has relatives who live even closer to the site What about me What about the tribe Osceola who is a prominent local environmental activist mentioned the governor s insistence that he has spent billions to protect the Everglades rings hollow after green-lighting a project which could threaten the delicate ecosystem of the area Signing a bill or signing a check doesn t mean you understand anything she reported What s going to happen to all that sewage if a hurricane hits This is the drinking water aquifer for eight million South Floridians not just the Miccosukee Tribe This is our ancestral territory I come out here to pray This is our home We are standing up for our home