Latest news with #FriendsoftheEverglades
Yahoo
an hour 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.'
Miami Herald
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Miami Herald
How DeSantis leaned on emergency powers to build ‘Alligator Alcatraz' in days
Nearly three years ago, when Hurricane Ian destroyed a bridge in southwest Florida and left residents on a barrier island with scant access to drinking water and food, Gov. Ron DeSantis leveraged his emergency authority to scramble contractors to reconstruct the bridge. It took less than three days. Now, the Republican governor is wielding those same powers for something different: building an immigration detention center deep in the Everglades in a week. Relying on an emergency order issued in January 2023 in response to a flood of Cuban and Haitian migrants arriving by boat in the Florida Keys, DeSantis is seizing county land, mobilizing a team of private companies to build a facility big enough to hold 3,000 detained immigrants and deploying Florida National Guard troops to secure the site. The rush of migrant arrivals ended long ago, but the order, which cites then-President Joe Biden's 'inadequate' response to immigration, has been repeatedly extended. 'This is not our first rodeo,' DeSantis told Fox News on Friday while touring an airfield owned by Miami-Dade County that has quickly been turned into a small grid of heavy-duty tents and trailers. 'The detention of illegal aliens is a little bit different,' the governor acknowledged. 'But logistics, we know how to do that.' The speed by which the state is building the detention camp — nicknamed Alligator Alcatraz in a nod to the gator-filled wetlands surrounding the site – has unnerved environmentalists as well as local and state elected leaders, some of whom are questioning whether the governor is overstepping his authority. 'What is the emergency in the state of Florida that we need to build this facility under this timeframe?' Sen. Lori Berman, a Boca Raton Democrat, said on Friday. 'We just really can't understand.' Technically, the governor is following the letter of the law when it comes to exerting his emergency powers, she said, but the question is whether there is an actual emergency. 'Florida is building a prison camp in the Everglades under the false cover of an emergency,' said Sen. Shevrin Jones, a West Park Democrat. 'Turbo-speed' The idea of Alligator Alcatraz first became known to the public on June 18 — less than two weeks before the detention center's projected opening date. On that day, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, a DeSantis appointee, appeared on Fox News to talk about plans for the new facility — complete with a helicopter tour on the site. The news segment piqued the interest of Ra Schooley, a former flight instructor and pilot familiar with the airstrip. Schooley, a Miami resident, dashed off a quick email to environmental leaders — including Eve Samples from Friends of the Everglades. 'Another thing to keep an eye on…' he noted, sharing a link to the clip. Two days later, Schooley saw an unusual notice from the Federal Aviation Administration to airmen: the tiny airport was set to close for three days, starting that evening. In close to three decades, Schooley had never seen the strip shut down, so he sounded the alarm to other environmentalists. 'No one knew about it,' he said. 'I thought they'd have to go through the community council or something.' But unlike a typical state construction project, which can be held up in lengthy procurement fights, the state has been able to move at warp speed because of DeSantis' emergency authorization. On the morning of June 21, Schooley flew over the area for the last time. The FAA that day sent a notice: no landings for the next 99 days. That same day, Uthmeier was in Washington D.C. meeting with Department of Homeland Security officials, setting in motion a massive undertaking to build the facility. At the time, activists were organizing a protest at the property for Sunday, the same day that a core group of private contractors was planning to hold a meeting on site. By Monday, the federal government had approved the plans to build the project, and soon after trucks were bringing in portable restrooms, tents and industrial generators into the area — laying the groundwork for days of around-the-clock construction. On that same day that construction started, Collier County officials were learning of the plan for the first time, according to emails obtained by the Miami Herald. Records show Collier officials were unclear on key details, including whether they were supposed to continue responding to emergency calls to the address. 'We have our own onsite ambulance transport, and we are compliant with Florida and national model standards,' wrote Kevin Guthrie, head of Florida's Department of Emergency Management, the agency leading the operation. 'It will undergo a federal inspection before opening.' Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava also received notice from Guthrie that day. He told her the property, which is owned by the county, was now under the control of the state and that it would remain so until 'the duration of the state of emergency,' according to records obtained by the Herald. Guthrie, who is also empowered to wield the state's emergency powers, said the state had begun construction on the site, 'as I now deem it necessary to meet the Division's current operational demands in coping with the emergency.' 'Time is of the essence,' he told Levine Cava. 'We must act swiftly to ensure readiness and continuity in our statewide operations to assist the federal government with immigration enforcement.' On Tuesday, officials in Collier, which along with Miami-Dade has oversight of the land, still had big questions left unanswered: 'What are the expectations of air medical trauma transport resources? Hurricane, severe weather - evacuation planning. Please forward your refuge plan for severe weather,' Dan Summers, Collier's director of emergency services, wrote in an email to state officials. In the event of a hurricane, Division of Emergency Management officials told the Herald that detainees and staff would be evacuated from the site. The agency added that it is developing a disaster plan. Setting precedent in Texas DeSantis' actions aren't unprecedented. Early last year, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott used his emergency powers to seize control of a local park in the border city of Eagle Pass, according to reporting from the Texas Tribune. The park sits off the Rio Grande, which divides Mexico and the United States. According to the city's mayor, Abbott issued an emergency declaration to take control of the park for use as a staging area. The city wanted to fight the takeover, but felt it wasn't in their best interest financially. Once seized by the state, troopers from Texas and Florida patrolled the premises and didn't let anyone in without permission, including U.S. Border Patrol agents, according to the Biden administration. Texas' takeover of the park came years into an ongoing disaster proclamation over the border that Abbott first issued in 2021. He renewed the order again this year – but has since returned the park to the public, saying that the Trump administration helped decrease border crossings and that it was no longer necessary. In Florida's emergency order, the state says that the Biden administration is the reason for the immigration crisis. Even now with the Trump administration in place, the continued order notes that it's necessary because 'the large influx and number of illegal aliens within the State remains.' Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has undone many of the Biden-era immigration policies. On June 17, the White House said U.S. Border Patrol 'didn't release a single illegal into the U.S.' in May. Uthmeier, during an interview with Fox News last week about the detention center, cited a Pew Research study that found Florida's undocumented population had grown by 400,000 from 2019 to 2022, reaching 1.2 million people. The governor's office did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment on the reasons why he believes the state is still under an immigration-driven emergency. In Florida, emergency orders expire every 60 days unless the governor chooses to renew them, which they can do an unlimited number of times. An emergency order DeSantis issued in September 2022 ahead of Hurricane Ian is still active today, and an emergency order DeSantis issued when the condo tower in Surfside collapsed lasted for nearly two years. Florida's Legislature has the ability to stop DeSantis' emergency order or limit its scope by passing a resolution, but it's unclear if that has ever happened. DeSantis' broader use of emergency power comes as U.S. presidents have also leaned on their emergency authority. Elena Chachko, a law professor at Berkeley Law School, said that both Trump and Biden employed emergency power in broad and ambitious ways. When it comes to the president's power, Chachko said the court is typically a check on the executive branch. In Florida, battles over executive orders have played out in the courts as well. In 2021, a group of parents challenged a DeSantis executive order that stopped school mask mandates. On Friday, environmental advocacy groups filed a lawsuit challenging the new detention center for not undergoing procedural review. Chris Reynolds, an emergency management expert and dean of academic outreach and program development at American Public University, called DeSantis' expanded state of emergency over immigration 'unusual.' 'Two years does seem like an awful stretch,' he said. Reynolds, of Tampa, said emergency response laws are meant to be broad to give leaders the flexibility to make fast decisions and keep people safe. But in this case, he said some may see DeSantis' moves as an overreach. 'In my opinion as an emergency manager, yes it stretches the emergency management doctrine in terms of a strict emergency management response,' he said. 'Is it against the law? No.' Without an explicitly declared disaster to prepare for, mitigate, respond to and recover from, there's no hard and fast rule for when a 'state of emergency' over immigration should expire. However, Reynolds said he doesn't see the immigrant detention camp diverting resources from Floridians when the next hurricane comes. If anything, he said, it's a 'superb' example of the kind of logistics and planning prowess Florida is known for.
NBC News
21 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.
San Francisco Chronicle
a day 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. ___ ___
Miami Herald
a day ago
- General
- Miami Herald
Environmentalists sue to block Alligator Alcatraz from opening in the Everglades
Two environmental groups filed a lawsuit against federal, state and Miami-Dade County officials on Friday over the immigration detention center under construction in the Everglades known as 'Alligator Alcatraz,' they said. Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity announced that they filed the suit in federal court because the plan for the detention center did not go through the appropriate environmental review or public comment period. 'The site is more than 96% wetlands, surrounded by Big Cypress National Preserve, and is habitat for the endangered Florida panther and other iconic species. This scheme is not only cruel, it threatens the Everglades ecosystem that state and federal taxpayers have spent billions to protect,' said Eve Samples, Executive Director of Friends of the Everglades, in a statement. This is a breaking story. Check back for updates.
