Floridians Oppose 'Alligator Alcatraz' 06/30 06:08

   

   (AP) -- A coalition of groups, ranging from environmental activists to 
Native Americans advocating for their ancestral homelands, converged outside an 
airstrip in the Florida Everglades Saturday to protest the imminent 
construction of an immigrant detention center.

   Hundreds of protesters lined part of U.S. Highway 41 that slices through the 
marshy Everglades -- also known as Tamiami Trail -- as dump trucks hauling 
materials lumbered into the airfield. Cars passing by honked in support as 
protesters waved signs calling for the protection of the expansive preserve 
that is home to a few Native tribes and several endangered animal species.

   Christopher McVoy, an ecologist, said he saw a steady stream of trucks 
entering the site while he protested for hours. Environmental degradation was a 
big reason why he came out Saturday. But as a South Florida city commissioner, 
he said concerns over immigration raids in his city also fueled his opposition.

   "People I know are in tears, and I wasn't far from it," he said.

   Florida officials have forged ahead over the past week in constructing the 
compound dubbed as "Alligator Alcatraz" within the Everglades' humid swamplands.

   The government fast-tracked the project under emergency powers from an 
executive order issued by Gov. Ron DeSantis that addresses what he views as a 
crisis of illegal immigration. That order lets the state sidestep certain 
purchasing laws and is why construction has continued despite objections from 
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and local activists.

   The facility will have temporary structures like heavy-duty tents and 
trailers to house detained immigrants. The state estimates that by early July, 
it will have 5,000 immigration detention beds in operation.

   The compound's proponents have noted its location in the Florida wetlands -- 
teeming with massive reptiles like alligators and invasive Burmese pythons -- 
make it an ideal spot for immigration detention.

   "Clearly, from a security perspective, if someone escapes, you know, there's 
a lot of alligators," DeSantis said Wednesday. "No one's going anywhere."

   Under DeSantis, Florida has made an aggressive push for immigration 
enforcement and has been supportive of the federal government's broader 
crackdown on illegal immigration. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has 
backed "Alligator Alcatraz," which DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said will be 
partially funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

   But Native American leaders in the region have seen the construction as an 
encroachment onto their sacred homelands, which prompted Saturday's protest. In 
Big Cypress National Preserve, where the airstrip is located, 15 traditional 
Miccosukee and Seminole villages, as well as ceremonial and burial grounds and 
other gathering sites, remain.

   Others have raised human rights concerns over what they condemn as the 
inhumane housing of immigrants. Worries about environmental impacts have also 
been at the forefront, as groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity 
and the Friends of the Everglades filed a lawsuit Friday to halt the detention 
center plans.

   "The Everglades is a vast, interconnected system of waterways and wetlands, 
and what happens in one area can have damaging impacts downstream," Friends of 
the Everglades executive director Eve Samples said. "So it's really important 
that we have a clear sense of any wetland impacts happening in the site."

   Bryan Griffin, a DeSantis spokesperson, said Friday in response to the 
litigation that the facility was a "necessary staging operation for mass 
deportations located at a preexisting airport that will have no impact on the 
surrounding environment."

   Until the site undergoes a comprehensive environmental review and public 
comment is sought, the environmental groups say construction should pause. The 
facility's speedy establishment is "damning evidence" that state and federal 
agencies hope it will be "too late" to reverse their actions if they are 
ordered by a court to do so, said Elise Bennett, a Center for Biological 
Diversity senior attorney working on the case.

   The potential environmental hazards also bleed into other aspects of 
Everglades life, including a robust tourism industry where hikers walk trails 
and explore the marshes on airboats, said Floridians for Public Lands founder 
Jessica Namath, who attended the protest. To place an immigration detention 
center there makes the area unwelcoming to visitors and feeds into the 
misconception that the space is in "the middle of nowhere," she said.

   "Everybody out here sees the exhaust fumes, sees the oil slicks on the road, 
you know, they hear the sound and the noise pollution. You can imagine what it 
looks like at nighttime, and we're in an international dark sky area," Namath 
said. "It's very frustrating because, again, there's such disconnect for 
politicians."