Florida is building a migrant detention center in the Everglades that state Attorney General James Uthmeier has nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz," the Orlando Sentinel reports.
The plan to convert the 17,000-acre Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport has drawn the ire of environmentalists and Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who slammed the plan.
"Due to the location of this parcel in a critical area, the conveyance of this parcel requires considerable review and due diligence," Levine Cava wrote in a letter Monday to Kevin Guthrie, the state's emergency management director under Gov. Ron DeSantis.
It "is also imperative that we fully understand the scope and scale of the proposed use of the site and what will be developed, as the impacts to the Everglades ecosystem could be devastating."
According to the Miami Herald, DeSantis appears to have already taken control of the property.
A 39-square-mile migrant detention center could be up and running by July, according to Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security.
Uthmeier last week said immigrants in the U.S. illegally should be sent deep into the Everglades, or what he calls "Alligator Alcatraz."
The "virtually abandoned airport facility right in the middle of the Everglades" would have the capacity to "house as many as 1,000 criminal aliens," Uthmeier said in a video sharing his offer with the White House.
"Florida's been leading on immigration enforcement, supporting the Trump administration and ICE's efforts to detain and deport criminal aliens," he said.
"The government tasked state leaders to identify places for new temporary detention facilities. I think this is the best one. As I call it, 'alligator Alcatraz,'" he added.
Eve Samples, executive director of the Friends of the Everglades advocacy group, called the idea "damaging."
"We fought this 55 years ago, the development of this site," she told the Herald.
"It was a really damaging idea then. It remains an extremely dangerous idea."
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.