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Newsweek
5 days ago
- Politics
- Newsweek
Alligator Alcatraz Is a 'Huge Step Backward,' Native Tribal Leader Warns
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. A tribal leader told Newsweek that he and members in the Big Cypress National Preserve of Florida, which is adjacent to the state's Alligator Alcatraz migrant detention center, are seeking legal remedies against officials because environmental efforts are taking "a huge step backward." Why It Matters On July 14, the Miccosukee Tribe in Florida filed a motion to join environmental groups in a lawsuit against state and federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Miami-Dade County and the Florida Division of Emergency Management. The suit said the Miccosukee people, who compose 15 active tribal villages and reside within the Big Cypress National Preserve, have lived in and cared for the land "since time immemorial." "The facility's proximity to the Tribe's villages, sacred and ceremonial sites, traditional hunting grounds, and other lands protected by the Tribe raises significant concerns about environmental degradation and potential impacts to same caused by the construction and operation of a detention facility at the TNT Site," the lawsuit said. "TNT" refers to the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, which was constructed in the 1970s and opposed by tribal members, conservationists and others. The opposition eventually halted the grandiose project after one long runway was built. Newsweek has contacted Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier for comment. What To Know Miccosukee Tribe Chairman Talbert Cypress spoke with Newsweek on Thursday on behalf of the tribe's 650 members, saying they had joined environmental groups in their legal action because of major environmental concerns that were conveyed prior to the facility's quick construction and use for illegal migrants. "If they had listened to our concerns, they would realize that this is actually not a very good idea to put this place in," Cypress said. "There's no infrastructure there, and everything has to be brought in. Basically, they're bringing in generators and cellphone towers." "And not to diminish what's going on there, but the cost of everything is going to be $450 million a year just to operate the place," he continued. "The governor [Ron DeSantis] as well as the Trump administration have put record amounts of money toward everybody's restoration and to put this project here flies in the face of that. It's a huge step backward for restoration." Betty Osceola, a member of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, standing in the Everglades a few yards from the front entrance of "Alligator Alcatraz" at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee,... Betty Osceola, a member of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, standing in the Everglades a few yards from the front entrance of "Alligator Alcatraz" at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Florida, on July 10. MoreCypress said that like most others, he and tribal members found out about Alligator Alcatraz through the news. By the time they voiced displeasure with state and federal lawmakers, the facility—which DeSantis said can house 3,000 to 4,000 migrants—had basically already opened. Last month, DeSantis told reporters that the facility would have "zero impact" on the environment. Following the First and Second Seminole Wars, the Miccosukee people were relocated to about 2.5 million acres of land at the southernmost point of their traditional range that was reserved as Indian Territory in or about 1845. The "truce was broken," as the lawsuit said, and the U.S. attempted to remove the members from the reserved lands, ultimately forcing the Miccosukee people deeper into the Everglades, which they still inhabit to this day. "We feel that there has not been any environmental impact study done, no consultation with the tribes that are present in that area," Cypress said. "The Miccosukee and Seminole Tribes, we both have residents that live in the area and traditional camps within the national preserve not too far from the detention facility." He continued: "We are concerned about the daily lives of our members. We have a lot of members who live there. The increased traffic in that area is a big concern, safety-wise. We're going to have a lot of transported materials that are going to be going through that area now daily. Waste has to go out; supplies have to come in. We're very concerned about that." The permanence of the structure and nefarious long-term effects on the surrounding wetlands provide additional worries, Cypress added. In late June, nonprofit organizations Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity wrote in their complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief and a temporary restraining order that the facility "lies within the broader Everglades ecosystem restoration footprint, and any development at that site that disrupts hydrologic connectivity or degrades environmental conditions threatens to undermine the very objectives that these federal and state investments were intended to achieve." What People Are Saying Elise Bennett, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, told Newsweek on Thursday: "This is an incredibly ecologically sensitive system, and the impacts extend far beyond the site. Artificial lights are blazing into the once dark sky, evicting endangered Florida bonneted bats from dark, open night sky they need to hunt insects. "It's also cutting into essential territory for the endangered Florida panther and increasing the risk of more of these big cats being struck by cars on roads. Contaminants on the site—fuels, wastewater and human refuse—threaten to pollute the sensitive waters surrounding the site on all sides. This place was meant to be a preserve for clean water and wildlife, and the federal and state government have turned it into a dystopian hellscape." Eve Samples, the executive director of Friends of the Everglades, told Newsweek on Friday: "This mass detention center was ramrodded into the middle of our country's oldest national preserve with no public input, no environmental analysis—and no regard for the billions of dollars invested in Everglades restoration. Our government has gone rogue by ignoring cherished laws that protect our nation's water, wildlife and national parks." President Donald Trump told reporters when touring Alligator Alcatraz on July 1: "It's known as Alligator Alcatraz, which is very appropriate because I looked outside and that's not a place I want to go hiking. But very soon, this facility will house some of the most menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet." Democratic Florida Representative Anna Eskamani wrote on Facebook on July 12: "The environmental impact of this facility cannot be overstated—there is new asphalt, thousands of gallons of water used everyday and gas tanks powering generators. No alligators seen but plenty of mosquitoes. No one should be working here let alone detained." What Happens Next After an expedited motion was filed on July 11, lawyers for state Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie told the court the groups did not have a right to tell judges how to proceed, E&E News reported. On Wednesday, Judge Jose E. Martinez recused himself from the case, which was reassigned to Judge Kathleen M. Williams. The change could cause delays in the case, meaning any potential relief may not come soon.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Miccosukee Tribe of Florida wants to join a federal lawsuit against 'Alligator Alcatraz'
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida is seeking to join a federal lawsuit aimed at halting the construction and operation of a new immigration detention facility in the Everglades, which tribal members consider their sacred ancestral homelands. Miccosukee leaders had already condemned the makeshift compound of trailers and tents that rose out of the swamp in a matter of days. But the filing Monday of a motion to intervene in the case initially brought by environmental groups signals a new level of opposition by the tribe, which is also a major political donor in the state. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration rapidly built the facility, which state officials have dubbed 'Alligator Alcatraz," on an isolated, county-owned airstrip inside the Big Cypress National Preserve, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of downtown Miami. The Miccosukee have lived on and cared for the lands of Big Cypress 'since time immemorial,' the filing reads, noting that the tribe played an integral role in pushing for the creation of the national preserve, the country's first. 'The area now known as the Preserve is a core piece of the Tribe's homeland. Today, all of the Tribe's active ceremonial sites and a significant majority of the Tribe's traditional villages (sometimes known as 'clan camps') are within the Preserve,' the filing reads. To DeSantis and other state officials, locating the facility in the rugged and remote Everglades is meant as a deterrent, a national model for how to get immigrants to 'self-deport.' The Republican Party of Florida has taken to fundraising off the detention center, selling branded T-shirts and beer koozies emblazoned with the facility's name. Officials have touted the harshness of the area, saying there's 'not much" there other than the wildlife who call it home. In fact, the Miccosukee have lived on those lands for centuries, the tribe's attorneys wrote in their motion, which notes that there are 10 tribal villages within a three-mile (4.8-kilometer) radius of the detention center, one of which is approximately 1,000 feet (304 meters) from the facility. The preserve is a place where tribal members continue to hunt, trap and fish, as well as catch the school bus, hold sacred rituals and bury their loved ones. "The facility's proximity to the Tribe's villages, sacred and ceremonial sites, traditional hunting grounds, and other lands protected by the Tribe raises significant concerns about environmental degradation and potential impacts," the filing reads. The lawsuit originally filed by the Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity 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, the plaintiffs argue. As of Tuesday afternoon, the judge in the case had not acted on the groups' requests for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to stop activity at the site. The state raced to build the facility at the isolated airfield before the first detainees arrived on July 3. Streams of trucks carrying supplies like portable toilets, asphalt and construction materials drove into the facility's gates around the clock as workers assembled a network of massive tents that officials said could ultimately house 5,000 detainees. What had been an internationally designated 'dark sky' park far away from urban development is now blasted by lights so powerful, the glow can be see from 15 miles (24.1 kilometers) away, the environmental groups said. The area's hunting and fishing stocks could be so significantly impacted, attorneys argue the tribe's traditional rights — guaranteed by federal and state law — could be 'rendered meaningless.' ___ Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Solve the daily Crossword
CBS News
16-07-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Miccosukee Tribe wants to join federal lawsuit against Alligator Alcatraz detention site
Citing "significant concerns about environmental degradation" and threats to "traditional and religious ceremonies," members of the Miccosukee Tribe are trying to join a lawsuit challenging an immigrant detention center in the Everglades. The facility, dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" by Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican leaders, neighbors 10 villages that are home to the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida in the Big Cypress National Preserve — including a village 1,000 feet away from one of the detention center's boundaries — as well as areas where tribal members work and attend school. "The Miccosukee people have lived in and cared for the land now known as the Big Cypress National Preserve since time immemorial," lawyers for the tribe wrote Monday in a motion to join the lawsuit that environmental groups filed June 27 against state and federal officials. Tribal members from throughout Florida travel to the preserve to "hunt, trap and hold sacred ceremonies," the court document said. Lawyers for the tribe echoed legal arguments by Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, which filed the lawsuit alleging that officials failed to comply with a federal law requiring that an environmental impact study be performed before developing the facility. The detention compound, which was erected adjacent to an airstrip known as the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport is "surrounded on all sides by the preserve or lands perpetually leased" to the Miccosukees, the tribe's lawyers said in Monday's motion. But Gov. Ron DeSantis has disputed that the facility threatens the environment, in part pointing to the decades-old airport, which is used for flight training. The court document filed by the Tribe's lawyers included a historical overview of the tribe's treatment by settlers dating to the 1800s and addressed the detention center's impact on the tribe's "primordial connection to" and "longstanding stewardship of" the surrounding land. The Miccosukees "continue to live in traditional villages within the preserve and routinely hunt, fish, trap, gather plants, hold sacred rituals, and lay their deceased to rest in the preserve," their lawyers wrote in Monday's document. The detention center's "proximity to the tribe's villages, sacred and ceremonial sites, traditional hunting grounds, and other lands protected by the tribe raises significant concerns about environmental degradation and potential impacts to same caused by the construction and operation of a detention facility" at the site, the document said. Members of the tribe also are concerned about "impacts to their freedom to hunt and fish in the immediate area adjacent to a securitized federal detention and immigration facility, as well as the possibility of a facility escape posing a security risk for their community," the filing said. The Miccosukees' motion argued that the number of occupants at the facility — which state officials said will house up to 4,000 detainees and another 1,000 workers — will "at a minimum, more than double the residential density in the area," which is accessible by a two-lane highway, known as the Tamiami Trail, which stretches across the state. "The construction and operation of a detention facility without necessary environmental studies potentially poses a substantial threat to the rights and interests of the tribe and the livelihood of tribal members who live adjacent thereto," the motion said. Attorneys for the DeSantis administration have argued in the lawsuit that the National Environmental Policy Act, the federal law that requires evaluating potential environmental impacts before projects affecting sensitive areas can move forward, does not apply to the Everglades facility because it is being operated by the state. Groups of state and federal lawmakers toured the facility on Saturday. Speaking to reporters after the visit, U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., called the conditions for detainees inhumane. Frost said that "cages" inside tent-like structures on the site each house 32 men, who share three toilets that are equipped on top with a dispenser used for drinking water. "All in all, every Floridian should be ashamed of the fact that our taxpayer money is being used for this internment camp where people are in horrible conditions in hot Florida sun," Frost said. "It's a gross misuse of resources to dehumanize immigrants and dehumanize people who were all Latino men in this facility." But Attorney General James Uthmeier, who was instrumental in selecting the site for the detention facility, disputed Democrats' criticisms. "I don't know what they're doing. They were elected to serve American people yet they're crying and bending over backwards to fight for illegal aliens, many of whom are wanted for serious, serious crimes," Uthmeier told reporters Tuesday. The state has estimated it will cost roughly $450 million a year to operate the detention facility, and another facility is planned at North Florida's Camp Blanding, which is used by the Florida National Guard for training. DeSantis has said the money would be reimbursed by the Trump administration. After the state dubbed the detention center "Alligator Alcatraz," Republican party officials are selling merchandise emblazoned with the moniker. President Donald Trump, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other state and federal officials toured the facility before detainees began to arrive this month. Noem has said she is in talks with five other GOP-led states to launch similar detention centers. While DeSantis and others have extolled the Everglades center, information about its operation — which is being conducted through an agreement with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency — has been difficult to obtain from official sources. After news reports identified contractors observed at the detention complex, vendors began obscuring the names of their companies on vehicles. State Rep. Anna Eskamani, an Orlando Democrat who also toured the detention center on Saturday, released a copy of a purchase order Tuesday showing that the state Division of Emergency Management has agreed to pay Jacksonville-based Critical Response Strategies LLC $78.5 million for correctional services and "onsite transportation" at the facility. Also, immigration attorneys and families of detainees have said they are having problems locating people at the facility, who may not appear on databases that are supposed to track detainees accused of being in the country illegally. Katie Blankenship, an immigration attorney who has several clients at the Everglades center, said that information is often difficult to obtain about people being held at similar immigrant-detention centers. "But this is an escalation we haven't seen before," Blankenship told The News Service of Florida in an interview, pointing to the Trump and DeSantis administrations' stance on immigration. "This is a perfect storm and sort of a sick mixture, a cocktail of state and federal action and working together this way has contributed to the confusion, intentionally."
Miami Herald
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Miccosukee Tribe moves to join environmental lawsuit against Alligator Alcatraz
The Miccosukee Tribe is seeking to join a lawsuit against the state and federal governments over the hastily built migrant detention facility in the Everglades — a place the Miccosukee call home. The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida filed a motion on Monday to join nonprofits Friends of the Everglades, Center for Biological Diversity and Earthjustice as plaintiffs in the lawsuit that accuses the state of Florida and federal agencies of skirting environmental regulations to build Alligator Alcatraz. 'The Tribe remains committed to ensuring its traditional lands are not used as a detention facility,' the tribe said in a statement. Florida is operating the facility in Big Cypress National Preserve, a federally protected section of the Florida Everglades. 'If people get out, there's not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons. Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide,' Attorney General James Uthmeier said in a video posted on X in June announcing the site. But the Miccosukee beg to differ. There are over a dozen traditional Indian villages surrounding Alligator Alcatraz, including one village and school bus stop 1,000 feet away from the facility's entrance, according to the tribe's statement. Traditional ceremonial grounds and 11 villages are within three miles of the facility. 'The Miccosukee Tribe is committed to ensuring that our ancestral lands in Big Cypress will not become a permanent detention facility,' Talbert Cypress, the Miccosukee chairman, said in a statement issued Tuesday. 'We have reached out to the State and Federal governments and expressed our concerns, but we have not yet been advised of a closure date. As a consequence, we must take legal action to compel the parties to remove this facility, given its outsized budgetary, environmental, community safety, and logistical impacts. We are hopeful that the administrations will change course and preserve these lands.' The Miccosukee argue in their motion to intervene that 'the construction and operation of a detention facility without necessary environmental studies potentially poses a substantial threat to the rights and interests of the Tribe and the livelihood of Tribal members who live adjacent thereto.' The Miccosukee people have traveled from north Florida to the Everglades to fish, hunt and hold sacred ceremonies 'since time immemorial,' the document states. The Miccosukee were relocated to the Everglades during the Seminole Wars. The state of Florida has legally recognized the Miccosukee's right to live on and use the land, including Big Cypress, for over a century, the motion says. Though the detention facility is expected to hold thousands of people in a sparsely populated area, the state and federal governments have not conducted any studies to determine how the construction and operation of Alligator Alcatraz will impact the nearby village residents and students at the Miccosukee Indian School, court documents say. The tribe argues that the detention facility is likely to impact the daily lives of village residents, with concerns that include water pollution and significantly increased traffic on the two-lane Tamiami Trail, which residents rely on to evacuate during emergencies. Gov. Ron DeSantis has said Alligator Alcatraz will have 'zero impact on the Everglades.' But environmental groups and experts say the facility puts endangered and threatened species in the area, like the Florida panther, the bonneted bat and Everglade snail kite, in serious danger. Immigration advocates have also raised concerns over the facility. Detainees, many of whom have no criminal record, described harsh and disgusting conditions inside the facility, like massive bugs, extreme heat and malfunctioning toilets, during the first days of operation. Immigration attorneys told the Herald they can't contact their clients.
San Francisco Chronicle
15-07-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
The Miccosukee Tribe of Florida wants to join a federal lawsuit against 'Alligator Alcatraz'
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida is seeking to join a federal lawsuit aimed at halting the construction of a new immigration detention facility in the Everglades, which tribal members consider their sacred ancestral homelands. Miccosukee leaders had already condemned the facility. But the filing Monday of a motion to intervene in the case initially brought by environmental groups signals a new level of opposition by the tribe, which is also a major political donor in the state. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration rapidly built the facility, which state officials have dubbed 'Alligator Alcatraz," on an isolated, county-owned airstrip inside the Big Cypress National Preserve, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of downtown Miami. The Miccosukee have lived on and cared for the lands of Big Cypress 'since time immemorial,' the filing reads, noting that the tribe played an integral role in pushing for the creation of the national preserve, the country's first. 'The area now known as the Preserve is a core piece of the Tribe's homeland. Today, all of the Tribe's active ceremonial sites and a significant majority of the Tribe's traditional villages (sometimes known as 'clan camps') are within the Preserve,' the filing reads. The lawsuit originally filed by the Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity 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, the plaintiffs argue. ___
