Latest news with #CenterForBiologicalDiversity
Fox News
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Environmental groups try blocking Trump's 'Alligator Alcatraz' with last-minute lawsuit
Multiple environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit Friday alleging officials did not evaluate ecologic impacts when constructing "Alligator Alcatraz," an illegal immigrant detention center near the Everglades and Big Cypress National Preserve. The lawsuit, filed by Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity in the Southern District of Florida, aims to pause construction at the federal site, which is being built at the reportedly unoccupied Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport. "It's a lazy lawsuit, and it ignores the fact that this land has already been developed for a decade," Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital. The 30-square-mile property will be home to 5,000 ICE detainees and is guarded by alligators and pythons. The Trump administration announced Tuesday it had approved the project, and crews started working on the transformation Monday. Attorneys allege the installation of housing units; the construction of sanitation and food services systems, lighting infrastructure, diesel power generators; and the use of the runway to transport detainees, pose "clear" environmental harms, according to a FOX 13 Tampa Bay report. Environmental groups and Native Americans who live in the reserve protested outside the airport Saturday, calling on officials to protect their homeland from additional pollution. "The defendants, in their rush to build the center, have unlawfully bypassed the required environmental reviews," according to court documents. "The direct and indirect harm to nearby wetlands, wildlife and air and water quality, and feasible alternatives to the action, must be considered under NEPA [National Environmental Policy Act] before acting." Lawyers also accused officials of violating Miami-Dade County code and noted Emergency Management's lack of authority to construct and manage a correctional center, according to the report. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" Friday that illegal immigrants could begin arriving by Tuesday, clarifying no permanent changes would be made. "It's all temporary," DeSantis said. "We'll set it up, and we'll break it down. This isn't our first rodeo. The impact will be zero." He added the center will be a "force multiplier," aiding in the enforcement of President Donald Trump's mandate. Funded by the state, the center will cost about $450 million to operate annually with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reimbursements. As the lawsuit seeking an injunction moves its way through the courts, work is continuing at the site, FOX 13 reported. The suit names Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Todd Lyons Florida Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie and Miami-Dade County. Florida Emergency Management and ICE did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's requests for comment. Miami-Dade County could not immediately be reached for comment.
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lawsuit and protest intensify over 'Alligator Alcatraz' in Everglades
A legal and environmental firestorm is growing around Florida's controversial migrant detention center — dubbed 'Alligator Alcatraz' — under construction at the remote Dade‑Collier airstrip in the Everglades. On June 27, two conservation groups, Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, filed a federal lawsuit seeking to halt construction. They argue the state bypassed required environmental reviews under both the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act, putting wetlands and fragile ecosystems at risk. The suit specifically cites threats to wetlands, endangered species, and culturally important tribal lands. Environmentalists rallied on June 28, with dozens gathering near the site in a protest organized by tribal elder Betty Osceola. Many held signs emphasizing the 'sacred' nature of the land and decried rushed decisions that ignored public input. According to AP News, the center is designed to house up to 5,000 migrants in temporary structures and will rely on nearby swampland, as well as local wildlife like alligators and pythons, as natural barriers. It is expected to become operational by early July and cost around $450 million per year, funded via FEMA's shelter and services program. Florida officials, including Governor Ron DeSantis and AG James Uthmeier, defend the project as an efficient processing site, while critics, including Miami‑Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, demand environmental impact assessments. With lawsuits filed and protests ongoing, the debate captures the clash between accelerated immigration enforcement and preservation of sensitive tribal and ecological lands within a UNESCO‑linked wetland. The post Lawsuit and protest intensify over 'Alligator Alcatraz' in Everglades appeared first on
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Florida plan for ‘Alligator Alcatraz' migrant jail sparks chorus of outrage
Environmental groups, immigration rights activists and a Native American tribe have decried the construction of a harsh outdoor migrant detention camp in the Florida Everglades billed by state officials as 'Alligator Alcatraz'. Crews began preparing the facility at a remote, largely disused training airfield this week in support of the Trump administration's aggressive goal of arresting and incarcerating 3,000 undocumented migrants every day. It is among a number of controversial new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) jails appearing around the country as the number of detentions by the agency surges dramatically. On Friday, two of the groups, Friends of the Everglades, and the Center for Biological Diversity, filed a lawsuit in federal court in Miami seeking to halt the project, arguing that a required environmental study had not taken place. Florida officials say the Everglades camp, which has been criticized by the Democratic congressman Maxwell Frost as 'a cruel spectacle', will open in the first week of July – a month in which south Florida's daily heat index regularly exceeds 100F (37.8C). Initially, about 100 Florida national guard troops will provide 'security' at the base, a spokesperson said on Thursday, a number likely to increase as its detainee population grows. Related: Plan to open California's largest immigration jail sparks outrage Paid for by Florida taxpayers and homeland security department funds, the project came about after the state seized the 39-square-mile site from its owners, Miami-Dade county, under emergency powers enacted by the Republican governor, Ron DeSantis. It now faces staunch opposition from an alliance of groups. These groups say housing up to 5,000 detainees in tents in the heat and humidity of the Florida summer, at a site surrounded by marshes and wetlands containing alligators, Burmese pythons and swarms of mosquitoes, amounts to inhumane treatment. James Uthmeier, the state's hard-right attorney general, laughed off the criticism. 'We believe in the swamp down here in Florida. We are swamp creatures,' he told the conservative podcast host Benny Johnson in a reveal of the scheme on Monday that bordered on mockery. 'There's no way in and no way out. The perimeter's already set by Mother Nature. People get out, there's not much waiting for them other than pythons and alligators.' The airfield's 11,000ft runway, he said, was perfect for large planes bringing in scores of undocumented persons detained by Ice from all over the US. 'There's a lot of low-hanging fruit,' said Uthmeier, who was held in civil contempt by a federal judge this month for continuing to enforce a state immigration law she blocked. The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians condemned the use of its ancestral lands in the Big Cypress national preserve for detention purposes, citing parallels with the government's mass roundup and forced removal of Native Americans in the 19th century. 'The state would save substantial taxpayer dollars by pursuing its goals at a different location with more existing infrastructure and less environmental and cultural impacts to the Big Cypress and Tribal lands,' Talbert Cypress, chair of the Miccosukee Tribe, said in a statement posted to social media. Environmental fears have been raised by, among others, the mayor of Miami-Dade, Daniella Levine Cava, who sent the Guardian a statement detailing her 'significant concerns about the scope and scale of the state's effort'. She said the project would have a 'potentially devastating impact to the Everglades', and noted that the state and federal government had invested billions of dollars in Everglades restoration efforts, some of which she fears could now be undone. 'We continue to have concerns about how a facility at this scale can operate without impacts to the surrounding ecosystem,' she said. Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, said the site was found unsuitable for development in the 1960s, when ambitious plans to make it a six-runway Everglades jetport with monorail service ferrying tourists to Florida's east and west coasts, was thwarted by environmental activism. 'All the reasons this was terrible back then still exist today,' she said, warning it posed 'an existential threat to the Everglades'. 'These are really valuable and protected Everglades wetlands, and if we move forward with a thousand-bed prison detention facility, whether it's temporary or not, there will be impacts from ancillary development, water and sewer impacts, water supply needs, traffic impacts. Those impacts were analyzed a half-century ago, and we know that they would be negative. 'Combined with the assault on Florida state parks last summer, and the rock mine proposal that we're currently fighting in the Everglades, it suggests the DeSantis administration is out of touch with what Floridians want, which is to protect the Everglades and our last remaining green spaces.' Neither the Florida department of emergency management, which is managing construction of the camp, nor Uthmeier's office responded to requests for comment. The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know. If you have something to share on this subject you can contact us confidentially using the following methods. Secure Messaging in the Guardian app The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said. If you don't already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS/Android) and go to the menu. Select 'Secure Messaging'. SecureDrop, instant messengers, email, telephone and post See our guide at for alternative methods and the pros and cons of each. Immigration advocates, meanwhile, say the Everglades camp represents a sinister ramping up of the DeSantis's already vigorous endorsement of Donald Trump's agenda. The Tampa Bay Times reported on Wednesday that a second new detention facility, at the Florida national guard's Camp Blanding training center west of Jacksonville, was in the works. 'He just always has to throw red meat to his base, always has to generate controversy and polarization,' said Thomas Kennedy, spokesperson for the Florida Immigrant Coalition. 'So obviously, they pick the most controversial site possible, right in the Everglades, using language like the alligators and the snakes, making it seem like it's going to be like a medieval castle with a moat. Related: Not just Alcatraz: the notorious US prisons Trump is already reopening 'There's no adequate running water or plumbing facilities. Uthmeier is out there saying we don't need to build brick and mortar because we'll just throw some tents up in the middle of the swamp, in July, in hurricane season, with the heat, no proper infrastructure and the mosquitoes. 'It's designed to enact suffering.' Frost, in a statement, called Uthmeier 'a Trump sycophant', and said the Everglades project was 'disgusting'. '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,' he said. 'They target migrants, rip families apart, and subject people to conditions that amount to physical and psychological torture. Now, they want to erect tents in the blazing Everglades sun and call it immigration enforcement. They don't care if people live or die; they only care about cruelty and spectacle.'
The Guardian
a day ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Florida plan for ‘Alligator Alcatraz' migrant jail sparks chorus of outrage
Environmental groups, immigration rights activists and a Native American tribe have decried the construction of a harsh outdoor migrant detention camp in the Florida Everglades billed by state officials as 'Alligator Alcatraz'. Crews began preparing the facility at a remote, largely disused training airfield this week in support of the Trump administration's aggressive goal of arresting and incarcerating 3,000 undocumented migrants every day. It is among a number of controversial new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) jails appearing around the country as the number of detentions by the agency surges dramatically. On Friday, two of the groups, Friends of the Everglades, and the Center for Biological Diversity, filed a lawsuit in federal court in Miami seeking to halt the project, arguing that a required environmental study had not taken place. Florida officials say the Everglades camp, which has been criticized by the Democratic congressman Maxwell Frost as 'a cruel spectacle', will open in the first week of July – a month in which south Florida's daily heat index regularly exceeds 100F (37.8C). Initially, about 100 Florida national guard troops will provide 'security' at the base, a spokesperson said on Thursday, a number likely to increase as its detainee population grows. Paid for by Florida taxpayers and homeland security department funds, the project came about after the state seized the 39-square-mile site from its owners, Miami-Dade county, under emergency powers enacted by the Republican governor, Ron DeSantis. It now faces staunch opposition from an alliance of groups. These groups say housing up to 5,000 detainees in tents in the heat and humidity of the Florida summer, at a site surrounded by marshes and wetlands containing alligators, Burmese pythons and swarms of mosquitoes, amounts to inhumane treatment. James Uthmeier, the state's hard-right attorney general, laughed off the criticism. 'We believe in the swamp down here in Florida. We are swamp creatures,' he told the conservative podcast host Benny Johnson in a reveal of the scheme on Monday that bordered on mockery. 'There's no way in and no way out. The perimeter's already set by Mother Nature. People get out, there's not much waiting for them other than pythons and alligators.' The airfield's 11,000ft runway, he said, was perfect for large planes bringing in scores of undocumented persons detained by Ice from all over the US. 'There's a lot of low-hanging fruit,' said Uthmeier, who was held in civil contempt by a federal judge this month for continuing to enforce a state immigration law she blocked. The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians condemned the use of its ancestral lands in the Big Cypress national preserve for detention purposes, citing parallels with the government's mass roundup and forced removal of Native Americans in the 19th century. 'The state would save substantial taxpayer dollars by pursuing its goals at a different location with more existing infrastructure and less environmental and cultural impacts to the Big Cypress and Tribal lands,' Talbert Cypress, chair of the Miccosukee Tribe, said in a statement posted to social media. Environmental fears have been raised by, among others, the mayor of Miami-Dade, Daniella Levine Cava, who sent the Guardian a statement detailing her 'significant concerns about the scope and scale of the state's effort'. She said the project would have a 'potentially devastating impact to the Everglades', and noted that the state and federal government had invested billions of dollars in Everglades restoration efforts, some of which she fears could now be undone. 'We continue to have concerns about how a facility at this scale can operate without impacts to the surrounding ecosystem,' she said. Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, said the site was found unsuitable for development in the 1960s, when ambitious plans to make it a six-runway Everglades jetport with monorail service ferrying tourists to Florida's east and west coasts, was thwarted by environmental activism. 'All the reasons this was terrible back then still exist today,' she said, warning it posed 'an existential threat to the Everglades'. 'These are really valuable and protected Everglades wetlands, and if we move forward with a thousand-bed prison detention facility, whether it's temporary or not, there will be impacts from ancillary development, water and sewer impacts, water supply needs, traffic impacts. Those impacts were analyzed a half-century ago, and we know that they would be negative. 'Combined with the assault on Florida state parks last summer, and the rock mine proposal that we're currently fighting in the Everglades, it suggests the DeSantis administration is out of touch with what Floridians want, which is to protect the Everglades and our last remaining green spaces.' Neither the Florida department of emergency management, which is managing construction of the camp, nor Uthmeier's office responded to requests for comment. The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know. If you have something to share on this subject you can contact us confidentially using the following methods. Secure Messaging in the Guardian app The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said. If you don't already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS/Android) and go to the menu. Select 'Secure Messaging'. SecureDrop, instant messengers, email, telephone and post See our guide at for alternative methods and the pros and cons of each. Immigration advocates, meanwhile, say the Everglades camp represents a sinister ramping up of the DeSantis's already vigorous endorsement of Donald Trump's agenda. The Tampa Bay Times reported on Wednesday that a second new detention facility, at the Florida national guard's Camp Blanding training center west of Jacksonville, was in the works. 'He just always has to throw red meat to his base, always has to generate controversy and polarization,' said Thomas Kennedy, spokesperson for the Florida Immigrant Coalition. 'So obviously, they pick the most controversial site possible, right in the Everglades, using language like the alligators and the snakes, making it seem like it's going to be like a medieval castle with a moat. 'There's no adequate running water or plumbing facilities. Uthmeier is out there saying we don't need to build brick and mortar because we'll just throw some tents up in the middle of the swamp, in July, in hurricane season, with the heat, no proper infrastructure and the mosquitoes. 'It's designed to enact suffering.' Frost, in a statement, called Uthmeier 'a Trump sycophant', and said the Everglades project was 'disgusting'. '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,' he said. 'They target migrants, rip families apart, and subject people to conditions that amount to physical and psychological torture. Now, they want to erect tents in the blazing Everglades sun and call it immigration enforcement. They don't care if people live or die; they only care about cruelty and spectacle.'
Fast Company
6 days ago
- Business
- Fast Company
Map: All 250 million acres of public land the Trump budget bill would sell off
The Senate budget bill—also called the reconciliation bill, or Trump's 'One Beautiful Bill Act'— is making headlines for its drastic cuts to Medicaid, its rollback of clean energy tax credits, and the fact that it would raise the debt ceiling by $5 trillion. It's also threatening to take away millions of acres of public land. Nearly 150 groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Center for Biological Diversity, and local organizations like Alaska Wilderness League and New Mexico Wild, have urged Senate members to reconsider this 'unprecedented' sell-off of public lands. The Senate budget bill would be a 'fire sale' of America's public lands and waters, Bobby McEnaney, director of land conservation at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement. The bill would force the sale of between 2 million and 3 million acres of public lands from the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, acres that span 11 Western states. (The state of Connecticut is about 3.1 million acres, for comparison). The bill also makes even more public land eligible for sale—more than 250 million acres, including hiking trails, ski resorts, wilderness study areas, national monuments, and critical wildlife migration corridors. New areas would also be opened for oil leasing and offshore drilling under the bill, including in the Gulf of Alaska. If passed, the bill would likely be 'largest single sale of national public lands in modern history,' according to the Wilderness Society. It's a move Senate Republicans are making, multiple groups note, in order to pay for billionaire tax breaks. The bill 'trades ordinary Americans' access to outdoor recreation for a short-term payoff that disproportionately benefits the privileged and well-connected,' the Wilderness Society says. Senator Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah and chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, has also said the bill would create opportunities for housing. But nature organizations say it would do no such thing—and that it would bring more harm to the public. 'There is no provision to prevent lands sold under Lee's bill from being developed into high-end vacation homes, Airbnbs, or luxury housing projects,' the letter signed by dozens of organizations reads. Selling these lands, they add, 'threatens public access, undermines responsible land management, puts environmental values, cultural resources, and endangered species at risk along with clean drinking water for 60 million Americans and betrays the public's trust.' That 250 million acres of public lands are at risk can be hard to visualize. The Wilderness Society made an interactive map, showing both the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service lands the bill makes eligible for sale. The map illustrates how those 250 million acres span 119 congressional districts, reaching all the way from Alaska down through the Western United States, and over past the Rocky Mountains. 'This bill would lead to a wave of irreversible extraction that will rob future generations of public access to lands and waters that belong to all of us—just to bankroll tax cuts for the superrich,' McEnaney said in his statement. 'As currently proposed, Americans will soon lose permanent access to the public lands close to home, their favorite trails, their parks, and their favorite recreation areas. Once these lands are sold, and the no trespassing signs go up, there will be no going back.'
