Latest news with #Everglades
Irish Times
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Irish Times
‘Alligator Alcatraz': Visit to new detention centre shows pleasure some Republicans derive from inflicting cruelty on immigrants
Who says Ron DeSantis does not have a sense of humour? Last year, the Florida governor was Donald Trump 's favourite whipping boy, verbally bludgeoned and outsmarted during his insipid run for the Republican presidential nomination. Now, he is virtually best in class, as he showed when he took a Fox News host around his pride and joy: Alligator Alcatraz. What was a seldom-used air strip about 90km into the Everglades west of Miami City has, in jig time, been transformed into an immigration processing centre. It will act as the final stop for undocumented people – or 'illegals' as is the official term of the Republican administration – before they are flown back to wherever they came from – or the next closest thing. READ MORE Florida governor Ron DeSantis. Photograph: Cristobal Herrera-Ulashkevich/EPA DeSantis ditched the suit and wore a black shirt and shades, going for detention centre chic as he hosted his tour. The curious thing is that this latest system of cost-effective cruelty seemed to have liberated the Floridian from his staggeringly wooden campaigning persona. In the swampy Ochopee heat, he was positively charming as he showed Steve Doocy around the centre. He made sure to point out that there will be air-conditioning, sanitary facilities, food and all of that good stuff. 'When you want to have deportation of illegal aliens there's a process the DHS [department of homeland security] has to go through to vet, to process, to stage 'em for removal,' he said. 'We've got jails and our sheriffs and police are working and the state of Florida is all in on president [Donald] Trump's measure. But that's not enough- there needs to be more ability to intake and then deport. This answers that.' There may be a kind of brutal rationale behind the system but the giveaway was contained within the casual differentiating phrase: ''em'. [ Juneteenth celebrations offer another lesson in stark difference between Donald Trump and Joe Biden Opens in new window ] DeSantis said that about '750,000 illegals' have already received deportation orders from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) across the country. About 150,000 are in Florida and it is impossible to use the regular prisons as they are needed for 'non-illegals, as they commit crimes too.' But the unique selling point of the Everglades centre is that wild nature will keep 'em penned in. 'This is as secure as it gets,' De Santis said triumphantly. 'If a criminal alien were to escape from here somehow, and I don't think they will, you've got nowhere to go. What are you going to do? Trudge through the swamp and dodge alligators just to get through 50 or 60 miles back to civilisation? All you need is a little bus to move 'em about 2,000 feet that way. They get on a plane and they're gone.' And it's more than just alligators – the area is the natural habitat of panthers, bobcats and other terrifying wildlife. An American alligator resting in the shallow warers of the Everglades in Florida. Photograph: Alamy/PA 'I love the whole concept,' purred Laura Ingraham when De Santis appeared on her show while explaining it to her viewers. 'It's this new migrant detention centre in the Everglades- as long as the Everglades aren't touched! Cos I love them too.' The most dismal aspect of the entire enterprise is the undisguised and unashamed gleefulness with which key administration officials and its broadcast echo chambers discuss the mass deportation policy. [ Trump country: 'When we travel, if you go to a bigger area, people can be rude and disrespectful' Opens in new window ] It's as if the whole thing is a gas, reminiscent of a famous James Bond scene. Roger Moore, marooned on a tiny bank in an alligator swamp while attired in a Savile Row suit, adjusts his tie to acknowledge his sketchy predicament. He then waits until the gathering reptiles align and nimbly hopscotches across their scaly backs to safety. It was one of the most notorious stunt scenes in Hollywood history; none of the regular teams would take it on so the alligator park owner did it himself. The human fear and awe of alligators, with their weird combination of sleepiness and murderous intent, is universal. And the imaginative optics feed into the Republican delight at the prospect of these reptiles standing as unpaid sentries to the thousands of desperate people whose final experience of the US will be a few nights in a tent in the Everglades. Federal agents patrol the halls of immigration court at the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building in New York City. Photograph: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images It's not enough to merely haul them out of their subterranean lives – as has happened with Madonna Kashanian, a 64-year-old Iranian woman who had lived in New Orleans for 47 years before being lifted by Ice while gardening outside her house. This is hardly the profile of the rampaging murderous immigrants Trump campaigned on, nor the dog-eating outsiders vice-president JD Vance warned against. But no matter. You have the paper work, or you don't. The border policy has been the great, uncomplicated success story of Trump's second term. He promised to stop the rush of undocumented people across the southern border and his team has done just that. They have targeted criminal gangs and operatives and justifiably claim to have made US streets safer. Tom Homan, the 'Border Tzar', has made it clear that this is just a numbers game. There is little room for human empathy. But the ill-disguised pleasure derived at inflicting maximum cruelty and humiliation on tens of thousands of people, who at the very least are enduring a kind of private despair, will generate a backlash. It could become the issue to bite the Trump administration back.
Washington Post
15 hours ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Environmentalists sue to stop opening of ‘Alligator Alcatraz' in Everglades
Two environmental groups on Friday sued to halt the construction of an immigrant detention center in the middle of the Everglades, arguing the state had ignored required ecological reviews. Florida officials have said that they plan to open the facility, nicknamed 'Alligator Alcatraz' by Republicans, as early next week and that it would hold up to 3,000 detainees.
NBC News
17 hours ago
- Politics
- NBC News
Environmental groups file lawsuit to stop migrant detention center in Florida Everglades
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit Friday to block a migrant detention center dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" now being built on an airstrip in the heart of the Florida Everglades. The lawsuit seeks to halt the project until it undergoes a stringent environmental review as required by federal and state law. There is also supposed to be a chance for public comment, according to the lawsuit filed in Miami federal court. Critics have condemned the facility as a cruel and inhumane threat to the ecologically sensitive wetlands, while Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials have defended it as part of the state's aggressive push to support President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration. The center is set to begin processing people who entered the U.S. illegally as soon as next week, DeSantis said Friday on "Fox and Friends." "The state of Florida is all in on President Trump's mission," DeSantis said on a tour of the facility. "There needs to be more ability to intake, process and deport." The state is plowing ahead with building a compound of heavy-duty tents, trailers and other temporary buildings at the Miami Dade County-owned airfield in the Big Cypress National Preserve, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of downtown Miami. The state Republican Party has even begun selling T-shirts and other merchandise emblazoned with the "Alligator Alcatraz" slogan. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity as well as the Friends of the Everglades, an organization started decades ago by "River of Grass" author and Everglades champion Marjory Stoneman Douglas to battle the original plan to build the airport. They are represented by the Earthjustice law firm and other attorneys including Florida writer Carl Hiaasen's son, Scott Hiaasen. "This site is more than 96% wetlands, surrounded by the Big Cypress National Preserve, and is habitat for the endangered Florida panther and other iconic species," said Eve Samples, Friends of the Everglades executive director, in a news release. "This scheme is not only cruel, it threatens the Everglades ecosystem that state and federal taxpayers have spent billions to protect." The lawsuit names several federal and state agencies as defendants, including the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Florida Division of Emergency Management. DeSantis's spokesman said they will oppose the lawsuit in court. "Governor Ron DeSantis has insisted that Florida will be a force multiplier for federal immigration enforcement, and this facility is a necessary staging operation for mass deportations located at a pre-existing airport that will have no impact on the surrounding environment," said spokesman Bryan Griffin in an email. "We look forward to litigating this case." A protest led by Native Americans who consider the land sacred is planned near the site on Saturday. There are 15 remaining traditional Miccosukee and Seminole tribal villages in Big Cypress, as well as ceremonial and burial grounds and other gathering sites.
The Guardian
17 hours 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.'
San Francisco Chronicle
18 hours ago
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Environmental groups sue to block migrant detention center rising in Florida Everglades
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit Friday to block a migrant detention center dubbed 'Alligator Alcatraz' now being built on an airstrip in the heart of the Florida Everglades. The lawsuit seeks to halt the project until it undergoes a stringent environmental review as required by federal and state law. There is also supposed to be a chance for public comment, according to the lawsuit filed in Miami federal court. Critics have condemned the facility as a cruel and inhumane threat to the ecologically sensitive wetlands, while Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials have defended it as part of the state's aggressive push to support President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration. The center is set to begin processing people who entered the U.S. illegally as soon as next week, DeSantis said Friday on 'Fox and Friends.' 'The state of Florida is all in on President Trump's mission,' DeSantis said on a tour of the facility. 'There needs to be more ability to intake, process and deport.' The state is plowing ahead with building a compound of heavy-duty tents, trailers and other temporary buildings at the Miami Dade County-owned airfield in the Big Cypress National Preserve, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of downtown Miami. The state Republican Party has even begun selling T-shirts and other merchandise emblazoned with the 'Alligator Alcatraz' slogan. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity as well as the Friends of the Everglades, an organization started decades ago by 'River of Grass' author and Everglades champion Marjory Stoneman Douglas to battle the original plan to build the airport. They are represented by the Earthjustice law firm and other attorneys including Florida writer Carl Hiaasen's son, Scott Hiaasen. 'This site is more than 96% wetlands, surrounded by the Big Cypress National Preserve, and is habitat for the endangered Florida panther and other iconic species,' said Eve Samples, Friends of the Everglades executive director, in a news release. 'This scheme is not only cruel, it threatens the Everglades ecosystem that state and federal taxpayers have spent billions to protect.' The lawsuit names several federal and state agencies as defendants, including the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Florida Division of Emergency Management. DeSantis's spokesman said they will oppose the lawsuit in court. 'Governor Ron DeSantis has insisted that Florida will be a force multiplier for federal immigration enforcement, and this facility is a necessary staging operation for mass deportations located at a pre-existing airport that will have no impact on the surrounding environment," said spokesman Bryan Griffin in an email. "We look forward to litigating this case.' A protest led by Native Americans who consider the land sacred is planned near the site on Saturday. There are 15 remaining traditional Miccosukee and Seminole tribal villages in Big Cypress, as well as ceremonial and burial grounds and other gathering sites. ___ ___
