Hundreds of people, including Indigenous groups, environmentalists and immigration advocates, planned Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Alligator Alcatraz detention facility in the middle of the Everglades on Saturday, planning a second protest in a week.
As of early Saturday afternoon, about 1,000 people were hot along the Tamami Trail, close to 50 milestones, outside the gates of a small airfield that is now set to become an immigration detention centre. The cars lined up the roads for miles in each direction. Members of the Miccosukee and Seminole Indian tribes broke the drums and led the ritual with sage to cleanse the area, while others carried signs, chanted and wore anti-ice t-shirts.
Meanwhile, a stream of trucks carrying building materials, industrial lights, generators and portable toilets passed the crowd of protesters and headed for a facility near the border between Collier County and Miami-Dade. Florida Highway Patrol troopers, Collier County Sheriff’s deputies, and other law enforcement officials stood at the gates to direct traffic.
The DeSantis administration has done a quick work to transform Miami-Dade County-owned airfields into what they consider to be the ideal location for detained migrants surrounded by crocodiles and swamps. However, the plan also led to widespread protests over environmental concerns, the location of sites on Indigenous lands, and the living conditions detainees face at facilities that fit in the middle of the hot Florida summer.
One of the protest speakers was Betty Osceola, an environmental activist at Miccosukee. He says the planned detention centre will disrupt the lifestyle of her tribe. The land with the runway is considered sacred and is home to Mikkoski and the Seminole Indians. Osceola said her tribes use the surrounding area for ritual purposes and foraging and fish.
“Now, all day long, you can hear noise from the trucks,” Osceola told reporters. She was worried that the detention facility would open the door for further development around the runway.
Speaking to the protesters through speakers, Osceola said the people behind the facility had forgotten their humanity.
“Find it in your heart to pray for these people,” she said. “That they can become human again. If they are human again, this will stop.”
Protesters came from far and wide to take part in Saturday’s demonstration.
Jamie Deloin, 45, traveled three hours from Port St. Lucie to Collier County to protest. She previously participated in statewide protests over Florida’s controversial plan to build a golf course and pickleball court in state parks. Now she sees detention facilities as another threat to Florida’s natural environment.
Floridians need reading
Subscribe to our free Florida with our Focus Newsletter (coming soon)
Get the biggest story happening across the state every Wednesday.
You’re all signed up!
Want more free weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.
Check out all options
“It’s important to get out here and stand up to the last wild spot,” DeRoyne said.
Deroin added that having a detention facility in the centre of the Everglades is “inhuman.”
“I was hit by a mosquito that’s coming out here,” she said. “It’s hot, humid and hurricane season. It’s not really the place.”
Nearby Jessica Perez, 23, wore an anti-ice T-shirt with a sign that read, “Following the order isn’t just a defense.” She is concerned about her friends, family, and the environment, who are immigrants.
“It’s a cross-existence, so we’re protesting,” Perez said. “I care about the environment and my family is care about it.”
Environmental groups filed a lawsuit on Friday to halt the construction of the facility, saying it “threatening the Everglades ecosystem, which has spent billions on protecting state and federal taxpayers.”
DeSantis dismissed environmental concerns, saying it had the effect of “zero” and that critics were using Everglades “as an excuse” “only the fact that they oppose immigration enforcement.”
This report uses information from the Orlando Sentinel.
