Environmental groups slam ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ as an ‘existential threat’ to the Everglades


Environmental activists gathered to protest the construction of “Alligator Alcatraz” over the weekend when the trucks wearing materials arrived at the site

Environmental protesters aligned the sides of the United States 41 road to protest the construction of "Alligator Alcatraz"
Environmental protesters aligned the sides of the United States 41 road to protest the construction of “Aligator Alcatraz”(Image: ApThat)

Environmental protesters gathered on Saturday on the 41st of the United States up to Protest by imminent construction of “Alligator Alcatraz”, a immigration detention center to Florida’s Everglades.

The group coalition ranged from environmental activists to native Americans who defended their ancestral homeland. They converged out of the great air court of the Everglades, while the dump trucks transported materials that climbed to the air field.

Hundreds aligned the road that unfolds through the marshy wetlands, a route also known as Tamiami Trail. Cars that go through support as a Protesters stirred signs Claiming the protection of expansive conservation, which houses some native tribes and various endangered species of animals.

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President Donald Trump, Governor Ron Desantis, R-FLA., National Secretary of National Security Kristi Noem and others, Tour "Alligator Alcatraz," A new migrant detention installation at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Facility, Tuesday, July 1, 2025, in Ochopee, FLA.
Facility is scheduled to double the number of beds for migrants(Image: ApThat)

Environmentalist Christopher McVoy said he saw a constant flow of trucks entering the place while protesting for hours. Environmental degradation was one of the important reasons why it came out on Saturday but as south Moldy The city’s commissioner said he also had concerns about immigration raids in his city.

“The people I know are tears and they were not far from it,” he told Associated Press. In recent weeks, Florida officials have advanced with their plans to build the massive facility, with the Government that quickly monitored the project under the emergency powers arising from an executive order issued by Florida’s governor, Ron Desantis, who addresses what he considers as an illegal immigration crisis.

The order allows the State to avoid some purchase laws and is why the construction has continued despite the objections of the Mayor of Miami-Dade County, Daniella Levine Cava and the local activists.

Trump travels through a migrant arrest center, called "Alligator Alcatraz," Located on the site of Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Florida on July 1 2025
Trump traveled the installation on Tuesday morning, then made comments(Image: Afp through Getty ImagesThat)

The installation has temporary structures, including weight tents and trailers, to house detained immigrants. The state estimates that in early July the site will be able to house 5,000 immigrants in arrest beds.

Compost’s proponents have noticed their location inside the everglades, which are loaded with massive reptiles, including algs and invasive Burmese pythons. They argue that the location is ideal for an immigration detention center.

Desantis said Wednesday: “Clearly, from a security perspective, if anyone escapes, you know, there are many alligators. No one goes anywhere.”

Protesters hold signs as they protest against the visit of United States President Donald Trump to a migrant detention center, called "Alligator Alcatraz," Located on the site of Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Florida on July 1 2025
Activists argued that the project would hurt the local ecosystem(Image: Afp through Getty ImagesThat)

Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, said the tutor that the site represented “an existential threat to the Everglades”.

“ These are really valuable and protected wetlands, and if we move forward with a prisons detention installation of a thousand beds, whether temporary or not, there will be impacts of auxiliary development, water impacts and sewers, water supply needs, traffic impacts.These impacts were analyzed half a century ago and we know that they would be negative.

“Combined with the assault on the parks of the State of Florida last summer and the proposal of rock mine that we are currently fighting for Everglades, suggests that the administration of Desantis is out of contact with what the Floridians want, which is to protect the everglades and our last remaining green spaces.”

Native American leaders in the region, however, have struck the construction project as an embedded in their sacred homeland, which led to the protest on Saturday.

In Big Cypress National Preserve, where the air court is located, 14 traditional miccosukee and seminole villages remain, as well as ceremonial burial grounds and other meeting places.

Other activists have raised concerns about human rights for what they condemn as inhuman housing for immigrants.

The concerns about environmental impacts have also been at the helm, with groups such as the center of biological diversity and the friends of the Everglades who file a lawsuit on Friday in the hope of stopping the plans of the arrest center.

“Everglades is a vast and interconnected system of navigable and wetland tracks, and what happens in an area may have harmful impacts downstream,” said executive director Friends of the Everglades, Eve Samples, according to Associated Press. “Therefore, it is really important that we have a clear sense of the impacts of the wetlands that happen in the place.”

A complete environmental review is sought and public comments as the site undergoes construction and that environmental groups say that work should be paused as long as it occurs.

The quick establishment of the installation is “damned evidence” that state and federal agencies hope to be “too late” to reverse its actions if a court is ordered to do so, according to Elise Bennett, a senior lawyer of biological diversity that works.

The potential environmental dangers also bleed in other aspects of Everglades’s life, including a robust tourism industry where hikers walk and explore swamps on aerial vessels, according to Floridians for Public Lands, Jessica Namam, who attended the protest.

An immigration center of the space makes visitors not desirable and only feed on the erroneous conception that the space is in the middle of the NO -res, “he said.

“Everyone here sees the escape fumes, sees oil shots on the road, you know. They feel the sound and pollution of the noise. You can imagine how it looks at night and we are in an international area in the dark sky,” he said. “It is very frustrating because again there is so much disconnection for politicians.”

Disantis spokesman Bryan Griffin said on Friday in response to the litigation that the installation was a “staging operation necessary for mass deportations located at a pre -existing airport that will have no impact on the surrounding environment.”

The facility is partially funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), according to the Secretary of the National Security Department, Kristi Noem.



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