Hundreds of protesters, including Native American tribes, environmentalists, and immigration advocates, lined Florida Alligator Alcatraz Tamiami Trail highway on Saturday, June 28, to decry the rapid construction of the “Alligator Alcatraz” migrant detention center in the Everglades. Dump trucks hauling materials rumbled past demonstrators waving signs like “No Detention on Stolen Land,” while passing cars honked in solidarity.

A coalition of tribes, activists, and lawmakers unite against everglades facility

The facility, spearheaded by Governor Ron DeSantis under emergency powers, repurposes the Miami-Dade-owned Dade-Collier Training Airport into a compound with tents and trailers for up to 5,000 detainees, slated to open by early July. DeSantis touts it as critical to supporting Trump’s mass-deportation agenda, with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirming partial FEMA funding.

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

Yet the site sits within Big Cypress National Preserve, home to 15 Miccosukee and Seminole villages, burial grounds, and endangered species like the Florida panther. For Betty Osceola, a Miccosukee activist, the project dishonors ancestral lands: “It’s very taboo for us to incarcerate. We don’t have a jail on our reservation”.

Florida Alligator Alcatraz

“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, according to a Reuters report.

“So it’s really important that we have a clear sense of any wetland impacts happening in the site,” Eve continued.

Environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit on June 27, demanding an immediate halt to construction until a full ecological review is completed. The Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Everglades—founded in 1969 to block a jetport on this same site—warn that the facility threatens wetlands that taxpayers have spent billions to restore.

The 39-square-mile site is 96% wetlands, and runoff from sewage, fuel, and construction could poison interconnected waterways supplying drinking water to 8 million Floridians. Critics also highlight brutal conditions: Summer heat indices exceed 100°F, hurricanes loom, and detainees would face swarms of mosquitoes and alligators, DeSantis joked, which would deter escapes.

“It’s inhumane,” said protester Jamie DeRoin. “I got bombarded by mosquitoes just coming out here”. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava called the rush “devastating,” noting the state bypassed environmental safeguards and community input. With locked gates now blocking public access, Jessica Namath of Floridians for Public Lands added that noise and light pollution are already disrupting the “international dark sky area”.

The project’s $450 million annual cost, partially funded by FEMA, faces scrutiny as litigation mounts. Attorneys argue the state violated the National Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act by skipping mandatory reviews. A hearing is urgently sought to pause construction before detainees arrive next week, but DeSantis’ office vows to fight, insisting the “preexisting airport” causes “zero impact”.