Everglades

President Donald Trump toured Florida's Alligator Alcatraz migrant detention facility in the Everglades ahead of its first expected detainees. Here is a fact-check of some of Trump's remarks.

Demonstrators gathered at the entrance to the new Florida Everglades migrant detention center dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" as President Trump made an opening-day visit to the controversial facility on Tuesday. "It's just about creating fear, and it's a bit sickening," said one protester.

Special VIP Movement Notifications issued for Palm Beach and Ochopee for Tuesday could be an indication that President Donald Trump may be making a visit to the Everglades' site in eastern Collier County.

On "The Florida Roundup," Kate Payne with AP and Ted Hesson with Reuters talk about how the Everglades facility has been called temporary, but the timeline of its existence is unknown.

"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 migrant detention facility is on track to open in early July, at a little-used airfield in the Everglades. Environmental activists hope they can 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.