TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) \u2014 An immigration detention facility located at an isolated Everglades airfield surrounded by mosquito-, python- and alligator-filled swamplands is just days away from being operational, federal officials said Tuesday. <\/p>\n
Florida officials are racing ahead with the construction of what they\u2019ve dubbed \u201cAlligator Alcatraz\u201d to help carry out President Donald Trump\u2019s mass deportation agenda<\/a>, working to build a compound of heavy-duty tents, trailers and temporary buildings similar to sites used during natural disasters.<\/p>\n The construction of the facility in the remote and ecologically sensitive wetland about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of downtown Miami is alarming environmentalists, as well as human rights advocates who have slammed the plan as cruel and inhumane.<\/p>\n State officials say the installation is critical to support the federal government\u2019s immigration crackdown, which has resulted in a record-high number of detentions, totaling more than 56,000 immigrants in June, the most since 2019. <\/p>\n Here\u2019s what to know.<\/p>\n 5,000 detention beds by early July<\/p>\n Construction of the site in the dog days of summer is part of the state\u2019s plan to operationalize 5,000 immigration detention beds by early July, according to Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier<\/a>, a former chief of staff for Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and a key architect<\/a> of the state\u2019s aggressive immigration enforcement<\/a> campaign. Uthmeier helped coordinate the state-funded flights<\/a> of about 50 Venezuelans to Martha\u2019s Vineyard, Massachusetts,<\/a> in 2022.<\/p>\n In the eyes of Florida officials, the harsh conditions surrounding the far-flung Everglades airstrip and its nearly 10,500-foot (3,200-meter) runway make it an ideal location to house and transport migrants.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t need to build a lot of brick and mortar,\u201d Uthmeier said in an interview with conservative media commentator Benny Johnson. \u201cAnd thankfully, Mother Nature does a lot on the perimeter.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s really nowhere to go. If you\u2019re housed there, if you\u2019re detained there, there\u2019s no way in, no way out,\u201d Uthmeier added.<\/p>\n The Trump administration wants to more than double its existing 41,000 beds for detaining migrants to at least 100,000 beds.<\/p>\n A tax-cutting and budget reconciliation bill approved last month by the U.S. House of Representatives includes $45 billion over four years for immigrant detention<\/a>, a threefold spending increase. The Senate is now considering that legislation.<\/p>\n Democrats and activists decry the plan<\/p>\n More than 50 years ago, environmental advocates, including the famed Marjory Stoneman Douglas, rallied to stop the same stretch of land from being turned into what was to be the largest airport in the world<\/a>. <\/p>\n Now, activists are rallying to halt what some critics have described as a state-backed \u201cheist.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSurrounded by Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve, this land is part of one of the most fragile ecosystems in the country,\u201d reads a statement from the advocacy group Friends of the Everglades. \u201cLet\u2019s not repeat the mistakes of the past. This land deserves lasting protection.\u201d<\/p>\n Florida Democratic U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost condemned the detention center, calling its apparent use of alligators as a security measure a \u201ccruel spectacle.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDonald Trump, his Administration, and his enablers have made one thing brutally clear: they intend to use the power of government to kidnap, brutalize, starve, and harm every single immigrant they can \u2014 because they have a deep disdain for immigrants and are using them to scapegoat the serious issues facing working people,\u201d Frost said in a statement.<\/p>\n Maria Asuncion Bilbao, Florida campaign coordinator at American Friends Service Committee, an immigration advocacy group, warned that the health and safety of detainees is being put at risk.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s happening is very concerning, the level of dehumanization,\u201d Bilbao said. \u201cIt\u2019s like a theatricalization of cruelty.\u201d<\/p>\n Bilbao, who leads a group of immigration advocates who help immigrants at one of the ICE offices in South Florida, said she\u2019s concerned about the health risks of the heat and mosquitoes, and the challenges the remoteness of the site presents to community members hoping to protest or monitor activities there.<\/p>\n DHS is backing the initiative<\/p>\n Officials with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have applauded the effort and the agency\u2019s \u201cpartnership with Florida.\u201d <\/p>\n DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said the new facility will be funded in large part 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are working at turbo speed on cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people\u2019s mandate for mass deportations of criminal aliens,\u201d said Noem in a written statement provided to the AP. \u201cWe will expand facilities and bed space in just days.\u201d<\/p>\n Managing the facility \u201cvia a team of vendors\u201d will cost $245 a bed per day or approximately $450 million a year, a U.S. official said. The expenses will be incurred by Florida and reimbursed by FEMA, which has a $625 million shelter and service program fund.<\/p>\n Immigrants arrested by Florida law enforcement officers under the federal 287 (g) program<\/a> will be held at the facility, as well as immigrants in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.<\/p>\n