Florida Democrats are reacting after State Attorney General James Uthmeier's announced plans for an immigrant detention center he's calling "Alligator Alcatraz". One congressman has already pledged to visit if it opens.
In a video posted on his X account Monday, Uthmeier says he wants to convert the old Everglades jetport inside Big Cypress National Preserve.
Alligator Alcatraz: the one-stop shop to carry out President Trump’s mass deportation agenda. pic.twitter.com/96um2IXE7U
— Attorney General James Uthmeier (@AGJamesUthmeier) June 19, 2025
"This is an old, virtually abandoned airport facility right in the middle of the Everglades. Florida has been leading on immigration enforcement, supporting the Trump administration and ICE's efforts to detain and deport criminal aliens. The governor tasked state leaders to identify places for new, temporary detention facilities. I think this is the best one," he said in the video.
Uthmeier wants the facility to have 5,000 beds by early July. Its meant to house immigrants with criminal records.
But Orlando Democratic Congressman Maxwell Frost is angered by the plan. He has concerns about the potential living conditions.
"They want to make a mass tent detention facility in the middle of the Everglades, in the hot, burning Florida sun, in the swamp, and have these people living in damn tents. It's cruel. It's a tragedy. It's horrible, and we're gonna do everything we can to fight against it," he said.
Frost, who has visited other immigrant detention facilities in Florida, told WFSU he will visit it if it opens.
"I went to Baker here in Florida unannounced, and that's a building that has real infrastructure, and the conditions are horrible, so I can only imagine what the conditions will be in a place that's being built up in about a month," he sai.d
Broward Democratic State Representative Dan Daley views the announcement about the facility as a distraction by Uthmeier. The attorney general was appointed to his current job, but if he wants to keep it, he'll have to run for election in 2026.
"It is a proposal that largely is designed to get attention, to go viral, to cause some big influx of Twitter followers, or whatever the case may be, to the attorney general's, you know, Twitter account, I don't think it's been fully baked," he said.
Uthmeier is also held in contempt of court recently after refusing to direct law officers to stop enforcing a new Florida immigration law that a judge has temporarily blocked. He is appealing the blocking to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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