Alligator Alcatraz

"Detaining immigrants at a remote airfield in the Everglades, with no clear legal framework or due process, is about fear, not safety," José Javier Rodríguez said Wednesday in a statement. "The most obvious reason seems to be political theater, just trying to get attention in Washington, rather than looking out for the interests of our state and its people."

Gov. Ron DeSantis said he believes people are trying to use the Everglades as a "pretext" for opposing immigration enforcement. He also mentioned there may be plans to do something similar at Camp Blanding in North Florida.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava late Tuesday acknowledged that Gov. Ron DeSantis had the power to buy a county-owned airport in the Everglades to build an immigration detention center, but said she has "significant concerns" about the project.

Orlando Democratic Congressman Maxwell Frost is angered by the plan and has concerns about the potential living conditions.

Gov. Ron DeSantis is directing the state to build an immigrant detention center on so-called "Alligator Alcatraz" — a partially-built airstrip in the Everglades.

Florida's attorney general says the facility is on track to open in early July, at a little-used airfield in the Everglades. Environmental activists hope they can repeat history and stop the project.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava is asking the state 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.

A state plan to house as many as 1,000 immigrants with criminal records in a remote Everglades area "fenced-in" by alligators and pythons brings protestors to abandoned former jetport area off U.S. 41. The area, inside Big Cypress National Preserve, retains special and sacred meaning to Native Americans and conservationists.