Even before July 1 when Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the opening of an immigration detention center in the Everglades — Alligator Alcatraz — Democratic lawmakers, environmental groups, the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and others had blasted the project and challenged its construction in federal court.
Critics and those groups filing lawsuits claim the facility, located on an airstrip about 50 miles west of Miami, say the rushed project was not reviewed for its impact on wildlife or the environment.
DeSantis administration officials dismiss those claims, saying the detention center is needed to help President Donald Trump's efforts to deport millions of immigrants who are in the country illegally.
The facility can house up to 3,000 suspected undocumented immigrant who can be detained, processed and deported from the same location.
One month after Trump toured Alligator Alcatraz and the first inmates arrived, WLRN has compiled a timetable of events and stories leading up to the facility's construction and the controversies it has courted since.
JUNE 18: Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier tells Fox Business that Florida is proposing to build a massive immigrant detention center in the Everglades on a large parcel of land owned by Miami-Dade County. He is calling it "Alligator Alcatraz."
JUNE 23: Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava asks state officials for more clarity and details on its plans to build a massive immigrant detention center in the fragile wetlands of the Big Cypress Preserve on land owned and managed by the county.
JUNE 24: Florida officials are moving at breakneck speed to build the "Alligator Alcatraz" immigrant detention center — inviting harsh rebukes from environmental groups founded to protect this very stretch of fragile wetlands.
JUNE 27: Environmental groups file a federal lawsuit that seeks to halt the "reckless plan" until it undergoes a stringent environmental review as required by federal law.
JUNE 28: A coalition of groups, ranging from environmental activists to Native Americans advocating for their ancestral homelands, converge to protest the imminent construction of the immigrant detention center.
JULY 1: As President Donald Trump toured the new Florida Everglades migrant detention center, protesters gathered at the facility's entrance decrying its potential environmental harm and what they called the "cruelty for cruelty's sake" behind its concept.
JULY 3: The first group of immigrants were scheduled to arrive at the new detention center. Florida AG James Uthmeier said on social media that "hundreds" of immigration detainees were due in.
JULY 11: Worms in the food. Toilets that don't flush, flooding floors with fecal waste. Days without a shower or prescription medicine. Mosquitoes and insects everywhere. Lights on all night. Air conditioners that suddenly shut off in the tropical heat. These are some of the conditions described by people held inside.
JULY 12: More than a week after several state legislators were denied access to Alligator Alcatraz, federal and state lawmakers were given a supervised tour. Democrats described harsh and horrific conditions for those imprisoned in cages crammed with 32 adult men in each.
JULY 16: A class-action lawsuit alleges that people held at Alligator Alcatraz are being prevented from having access to lawyers and "effectively have no way to contest their detention."
JULY 18: President Donald Trump, federal officials and Florida Republicans touted Alligator Alcatraz as a place to detain people deemed the "worst of the worst." There are criminals with convictions for violent crimes among the first 750 people detained at the facility — but a factcheck shows they are in the minority.
JULY 22: Gov. Ron DeSantis ' administration has already signed contracts to pay at least $245 million to set up and run the new immigration detention center, according to a public database.
JULY 22: Alligator Alcatraz has come under intense scrutiny for its controversial cage-cell conditions. WLRN reports that detainees are also now alleging controversial punishments they receive — including, as one charges, being made to stand in the sun for hours on end for arguing with guards.
JULY 25: The first deportation flights from the detention center began departing, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced. Two influential environmental groups suing state officials sounded the alarm over what they say is a "catastrophe" unfolding at the remote site.
JULY 28: A federal judge said he wants more clarity on "who is running the show" at Alligator Alcatraz, following a lawsuit over attorney access to clients detained at the immigration detention center in the Everglades.
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