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Miami Herald
2 days ago
- 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.
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Native Americans raise safety concerns over Florida Everglades detention center
A Florida Native American leader spoke out against a new migrant detention facility in the Florida Everglades, nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz," raising environmental and safety concerns for local tribal communities. President Trump, visiting the site Tuesday, said the facility will hold "some of the most menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet." The detention center, built on a remote airstrip in the Everglades, can hold up to 5,000 migrants in tents and trailers. Talbert Cypress, chairman of the Miccosukee Business Council, said some tribal villages are located within 900 feet of the facility's entrance. "This proposed facility is surrounded on all sides by the Big Cypress National Preserve, and the tribe has been at home in the Big Cypress for centuries," Cypress told ABC News. Cypress pointed to the lack of environmental studies on what creating the detention center could mean for the local ecosystem. MORE: Trump falsely questions Zohran Mamdani's citizenship, threatens to arrest him over ICE operations "There's been no environmental impact study done. The environmental impact study that was done back in 1974 pretty much suggested that putting any kind of airship in the area was going to have significant impacts on the Everglades," he said. The facility's closeness to traditional Native camps, where Miccosukee and Seminole members live and teach both American and Native education, has raised more concerns. "We're concerned about safety... CBP, also just in general, all the traffic that's going to be coming through there, and flights coming in and out," Cypress said. During the tour with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Trump highlighted the facility's remote location. "It's very appropriate, because I looked outside and it's not a place I want to go hiking anytime soon," Trump said. "We're surrounded by miles of treacherous swamp land, and the only way out is really deportation." ABC News correspondent Victor Oquendo reported that the administration sees the surrounding wildlife, including alligators and pythons, as a natural barrier for the detention center, stopping migrants from being able to escape. The facility might become a model for similar centers planned in Louisiana and Alabama, Trump told ABC News. New data studied by ABC News shows a shift in enforcement priorities, with more arrests of migrants with no criminal record. DHS responded that 70% of ICE arrests were migrants with a criminal record. Cypress ended with a message to Trump and DeSantis: "President Trump and DeSantis have been very good to the Everglades, and we feel like [this is a] step backwards in their effort."
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Florida tribe fights new 'Alligator Alcatraz' migrant facility near Everglades homes
A Florida Native American leader spoke out against a new migrant detention facility in the Florida Everglades, nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz," raising environmental and safety concerns for local tribal communities. President Trump, visiting the site Tuesday, said the facility will hold "some of the most menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet." The detention center, built on a remote airstrip in the Everglades, can hold up to 5,000 migrants in tents and trailers. Talbert Cypress, chairman of the Miccosukee Business Council, said some tribal villages are located within 900 feet of the facility's entrance. "This proposed facility is surrounded on all sides by the Big Cypress National Preserve, and the tribe has been at home in the Big Cypress for centuries," Cypress told ABC News. Cypress pointed to the lack of environmental studies on what creating the detention center could mean for the local ecosystem. MORE: Trump falsely questions Zohran Mamdani's citizenship, threatens to arrest him over ICE operations "There's been no environmental impact study done. The environmental impact study that was done back in 1974 pretty much suggested that putting any kind of airship in the area was going to have significant impacts on the Everglades," he said. The facility's closeness to traditional Native camps, where Miccosukee and Seminole members live and teach both American and Native education, has raised more concerns. "We're concerned about safety... CBP, also just in general, all the traffic that's going to be coming through there, and flights coming in and out," Cypress said. During the tour with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Trump highlighted the facility's remote location. "It's very appropriate, because I looked outside and it's not a place I want to go hiking anytime soon," Trump said. "We're surrounded by miles of treacherous swamp land, and the only way out is really deportation." ABC News correspondent Victor Oquendo reported that the administration sees the surrounding wildlife, including alligators and pythons, as a natural barrier for the detention center, stopping migrants from being able to escape. The facility might become a model for similar centers planned in Louisiana and Alabama, Trump told ABC News. New data studied by ABC News shows a shift in enforcement priorities, with more arrests of migrants with no criminal record. DHS responded that 70% of ICE arrests were migrants with a criminal record. Cypress ended with a message to Trump and DeSantis: "President Trump and DeSantis have been very good to the Everglades, and we feel like [this is a] step backwards in their effort."
01-07-2025
- Business
Florida Native American leaders express concern over ‘Alligator Alcatraz'
Chairman of the Miccosukee Business Council Talbert Cypress explained why Indigenous Americans and environmental groups are protesting the development of 'Alligator Alcatraz.'
The Guardian
15-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Native American tribe steps up to protect Florida lands for wildlife
Almost two centuries ago, Native American tribe members sought the protection of Florida's Everglades during the Seminole wars as they hid from government forces seeking to banish them to Indian territories that later became Oklahoma. Now, as the Trump administration continues its wholesale slashing of federal funding from conservation projects, the Miccosukee Tribe is stepping up to fulfill what it sees as a 'moral obligation' to return the favor. The tribe is looking to buy and protect environmentally significant lands, including some that once provided refuge, in a groundbreaking partnership agreement with the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation. The corridor is an ambitious project to connect 18m acres (7.3m hectares) of state and privately owned wilderness into a contiguous, safe habitat for scores of imperilled and roaming species, including black bears, Key deer and Florida panthers. Tribal officials say they will work with the foundation and other partners to 'explore the acquisition and stewardship' of land within the corridor considered important to the tribe and its community. 'We have a constitutional duty to conserve our traditional homelands, the lands and waters which protected and fed our tribe since time immemorial,' said Talbert Cypress, chair of the Miccosukee Tribe headquartered on a 130-square-mile reservation west of Miami. '[But] we've seen some sort of hesitancy a lot of times to commit to projects because of the erratic nature of how the government is deciding to spend their money or allocate money.' The agreement, announced at a summit of corridor stakeholders in Orlando last week, comes as a study by the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society (NAFWS) found that 60% of federally recognized tribes have lost grants or other federal funds totalling more than $56m since Donald Trump took office in January. 'These services are part of what we receive in lieu of all of the years of what we gave up, our land, our resources and sometimes, unfortunately, our culture and language,' Julie Thorstenson, executive director of the NAFWS, told the Wildlife Society last month. With government funding drying up, and the future of existing federal land stewardship agreements uncertain because of Trump's sustained onslaught on the National Parks Service, Cypress said tribe leaders had re-evaluated its work with other partners. 'For good reason, my predecessors had more of a standoffish approach. They went through a lot of the areas where they did deal with conservation groups, federal agencies, state agencies, pretty much not including them in conversations, or going back on their word. They just had a very different approach to this sort of thing,' he said. 'My administration has taken more of a collaborative approach. We're engaging with different organizations not just to build relationships, but fix relationships that may have gone sour in the past, or were just non-existent.' Cypress said the tribe, which already has collaborative or direct stewardship of almost 3m acres in the Everglades and Biscayne national parks, and Loxahatchee national wildlife refuge, was working to identify and prioritize land within the corridor of historical significance, and to 'get those conversations going'. He said: 'Financially, the tribe will invest some money, but we'll also be instrumental in finding investors, partners interested in the same thing, which is to conserve as much of our natural habitat as possible while making room for growth and development. 'We've shown we can do it in a sustainable way, and our voice can help in shaping the future of Florida as far as development goes because once a lot of the land gets developed we're not going to get it back. 'We need to do it in a way where we benefit not just ourselves in the present, but for generations in the future as well.' The Florida wildlife corridor was established in 2021 by lawmakers who approved an initial $400m for acquisition against a multi-year $2bn budget for land conservation. About 10m acres have been preserved, with another 8m considered 'opportunity areas' in need of protection, and environmental groups warning large areas could still be lost to development. The legislature, which is weighing cuts to corridor funding as it attempts to balance state spending, has encouraged commercial investment and partnerships. At last week's summit, the Disney Conservation Fund announced a $1m grant for training conservation teams and expanding public access to trails and natural areas.
