Environmental campaigners, immigrant rights advocates, and a Native American tribe have condemned the construction of a controversial outdoor migrant detention facility deep within the Florida Everglades, branded by state officials as “Alligator Alcatraz”.
Crews began work this week to prepare the remote site, located at a largely abandoned training airfield, for what has been described by critics as a “cruel spectacle” designed to house undocumented migrants in harsh, inhumane conditions. The facility is being built to support the Trump administration’s newly intensified immigration crackdown, which aims to detain and incarcerate up to 3,000 undocumented migrants per day.
Set to open in early July, the camp’s timing has raised widespread alarm, with South Florida’s summer heat index frequently exceeding 100°F (37.8°C). Opponents argue that placing vulnerable detainees in such an environment, particularly in a region known for its swamps, snakes, alligators, and severe weather, is not only reckless but intended to be punitive.
The Everglades facility is one of several new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centres rapidly emerging across the United States, as the number of migrant arrests and detentions continues to surge.
Florida officials have refused to disclose many details of the Everglades project. However, a report by the Tampa Bay Times revealed that a second facility is already in planning stages at Camp Blanding, a Florida National Guard training base west of Jacksonville. Both sites reflect Governor Ron DeSantis’s continued support for Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda.
Critics have been vocal in their condemnation. Thomas Kennedy, spokesperson for the Florida Immigrant Coalition, said the state government had deliberately chosen “the most controversial site possible” to provoke outrage and reinforce a political message.
“He just always has to throw red meat to his base, always has to generate controversy and polarisation,” Kennedy said, referring to Governor DeSantis. “They’re using medieval metaphors, describing the camp like it’s got moats full of alligators and snakes. There’s no adequate running water, no plumbing. Uthmeier [Florida’s chief of staff] is out there saying we don’t need proper buildings, we’ll just throw up tents in the middle of a swamp, in hurricane season, in July, with mosquitoes, heat, and no infrastructure. It’s designed to enact suffering.”
