Trump administration opens Florida detention center
An immigration detention center located in an isolated Everglades surrounded by swamps of mosquito, python and alligator, is a few days to be operational, said federal officials on June 24.
Florida officials continue with the construction of what they nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz” to help make the mass expulsion program of President Donald Trump, working to build a compound of heavy tents, trailers and temporary buildings similar to the sites used during natural disasters.
The construction of the installation in distant wetlands and ecologically sensitive to approximately 45 miles west of downtown Miami is alarming, as well as human rights defenders who criticized the plan as cruel and inhuman.
State officials claim that the installation is essential to support the repression of federal government immigration, which has led to a record number of detentions, totaling more than 56,000 immigrants in June, the most since 2019.
Here’s what you need to know.
5,000 detention beds in early July
The construction of the site in summer dogs is part of the state plan to operationalize 5,000 immigration detention beds in early July, according to Florida Attorney General, James Uthmeier, former chief of staff to the Republican Governor Ron Desantis and a key architect of the aggressive state immigration campaign. Mr. Uthmeier helped coordinate the flights funded by the state of around 50 Venezuelans in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, in 2022.
In the eyes of Florida officials, the difficult conditions surrounding the distant Everglades air track and its nearly 10,500 feet track make it an ideal location to house and transport migrants.
“We don’t need to build a lot of bricks and mortar,” said Uthmeier in an interview with conservative media Benny Johnson. “And fortunately, Mother Nature does a lot on the perimeter.”
“There is really nowhere to go. If you are hosted there, if you are detained, there is no way to get started,” added Mr. Uthmeier.
The Trump administration wants more to double its 41,000 existing beds for the holding of migrants to at least 100,000 beds.
A tax and budget cutting reconciliation bill approved last month by the United States House of Representatives includes $ 45 billion over four years for immigrant ownership, an increase in triple spending. The Senate now examines this legislation.
Democrats and activists denounce the plan
Over 50 years ago, environmental defenders, including Marjory Stoneman Douglas, gathered to prevent the same section of land from being transformed into what was to be the largest airport in the world.
Now activists come together to stop what some criticisms have described as a “burglary” supported by the state.
“Surrounded by the Everglades National Park and the large national cypress reserve, this land is part of one of the most fragile ecosystems in the country,” reads a declaration by the defense group of the friends of the Everglades. “Let us not repeat the errors of the past. This land deserves sustainable protection.”
The United States Democrat representative in Florida, Maxwell Frost, condemned the detention center, describing its apparent use of alligators as a security measure a “cruel spectacle”.
“Donald Trump, his administration and his catalysts have clarified a brutally clear thing: they intend to use government power to kidnap, brutalize, starve and harm each immigrant they can – because they have a deep disdain for immigrants and use them to make the scapegoat the serious problems with which workers confronted,” said Mr. Frost.
Maria Asuncion Bilbao, Florida campaign at the American Friends Service Committee, a defense group for immigration defenders, warned that the health and security of detainees are endangered.
“What is happening is very worrying, the level of dehumanization,” said Ms. Bilbao. “It’s like theatricalization of cruelty.”
Ms. Bilbao, who leads a group of immigration defenders who help immigrants in one of the southern Florida ice offices, said that she was concerned about the health and mosquito health risks, and the challenges of the site’s distance from the members of the community in the hope of protesting or monitoring activities.
DHS supports the initiative
Officials of the American Department of Internal Security applauded the agency’s effort and “partnership with Florida”.
DHS secretary Kristi Noem said that the new installation will be largely funded by the Shelter and Services program within the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, which is best known for responding to hurricanes and other natural disasters.
“We are working on Turbo Speed on profitable and innovative means to deliver the mandate of the American people for mass deportations of criminal foreigners,” said Noem in a written declaration provided. “We will expand the installations and the bed space in a few days.”
The management of the establishment “via a team of suppliers” will cost $ 245 per day per day or approximately $ 450 million per year, said an American official. Expenditure will be incurred by Florida and reimbursed by FEMA, which has a fund of $ 625 million in shelter and service program.
Immigrants arrested by agents of the Florida law application as part of the Federal Program 287 (G) will be organized in the establishment, as well as immigrants in the care of American immigration and the application of customs, or ice.
Under the Rec. 287 (G) program, agents of the application of local laws and states can question immigrants under their care and hold them for potential expulsion.
More than 280 agreements of this type were signed by agencies in the 67 counties of Florida, more than a third of the 720 agreements that ice has reached nationally.
Florida uses emergency powers to build the site
State representatives reduce land using emergency powers, under an executive decree issued by Mr. Desantis during the administration of the president of the time, Joe Biden, to respond to what the governor judged a crisis caused by illegal immigration.
Florida goes ahead with the construction on land belonging to the county on the concerns of the mayor of the county of Miami-Dade, Daniella Levine Cava, local militants and Amerindian tribal leaders who consider the sacred region.
By relying on decrees, the state is able to bypass the purchasing laws and returning the project, which, according to Nikki Fried, said that the president of the Florida Democratic Party said that abuse of power.
The ordinances grant the scanning authority to the head of state emergency management, Kevin Guthrie, including the power to suspend “any law, rule or order” considered as slowing down the response to emergency and the capacity to place certain members of the law enforcement staff on the other side of the State under its “direct and coordination order”.
“Governor Desantis insisted that the state of Florida, under his leadership, would facilitate the federal government in the application of immigration law,” said a spokesperson for Mr. Desantis in a statement.
“Florida will continue to lead to the application of immigration.”
This story was reported by the Associated Press. The AP writer, Gisela Salomon, contributed to this report.
