TALHASSEE – Following federal blessings, the DeSantis administration began construction of immigration detention centers on the Air Strip deep in the Everglades, which became obsessed with the sweep of President Donald Trump’s deportation, and will be housed in trailers and “heavy-duty” tents on Summer Dog Day.
State law enforcement officials plan to open a 1,000-bed facility within days, commanding environmentally sensitive land owned by Miami-Dade County and began guiding them by trucks carrying portable toilets and industrial generators. Private emergency management companies were also on the scene to help set up what state officials call “crocodile alcatraz.”
The construction of the facility, surrounded by wetlands filled with crocodiles, snakes and mosquitoes, represents a new expansion front in Florida’s push to increase the enforcement footprint of immigrants, and the harsh optics deployed to discourage immigrants from entering the United States.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet have worked for months with the federal government to give more autonomy to detain, the House and deport immigrants, and position the nation as the most offensive in the country when it comes to illegal immigration. Florida plans to operate the facility at a cost of around $450 million a year due to its ability to seek rebates from the federal government, a senior Department of Homeland Security official told the Miami Herald in a statement Monday.
Homeland Security Secretary Christie Noem said the state-run immigration detention center will be a “cost-effective and innovative” way to realize Trump’s immigration agenda. Researchers at TRAC’s Syracuse University said as of mid-June, 56,000 detained migrants were in federal detention.
“Thanks to our partnership with Florida, we will be expanding our facilities and bed space in just a few days,” Noem said in a statement in the Miami Herald on Monday.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Shelter and Services Program has set aside $625 million to fund the state’s efforts, a senior official said. The previous administration used the program to support local governments and nonprofit homes, which were released and processed by Homeland Security.
Noem said the program, which Trump falsely claimed left FEMA without disaster recovery funds under former President Joe Biden, was previously used as “a piggy bank to spend hundreds of millions of American taxpayer dollars to house illegal aliens.”
The White House introduced the Herald to the Department of Homeland Security. The Florida Department of Emergency Management, which oversees the operation of the facility, did not immediately answer questions about anyone employed to build the facility or other details about the construction, including environmental permits and costs.
It is unclear how vast the operations to build the facility are. However, state contractors were on the scene as early as Sunday afternoon, preparing to begin construction on Monday.
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“The first week of July will be open,” Florida Attorney General James Usmierer said in an interview Monday with conservative social media personality Benny Johnson. “There are some light infrastructure, many heavy-duty tent facilities and trailer facilities. There’s no need to build a lot of bricks and mortar.”
Business and state officers entered Miami-Dade County-owned property using the emergency granted to the governor under a declared emergency against illegal immigrants issued in 2023.
Under Florida law, the governor has the authority to use his commander or private property if it is deemed necessary to “handle” an emergency.
State and county officials are negotiating the purchase of property that spans the Miami-Dade and Collier counties borders. The state offered to pay $20 million for the land. The May 25th county valuation pair is worth $195 million in the county’s land within the Big Cypress National Reserve.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniela Levine Caba, a Democrat, raised concerns with state officials about the development of the property, saying that the change to the location would require “substantial review and due diligence.”
In a letter Monday to the Department of Emergency Management, Kevin Guthrie, Director of Emergency Management, Levine Cava said: “It is essential to have a full understanding of the scope and scale of the use of the site as the Everglades’ impact on the ecosystem can be devastating.”
Alex Howard, a former Homeland Security spokesman under the Biden administration, described the Everglades facility as “a little guantanamo in DeSantis in the swamp.”
“Turning the Everglades into a taxpayer-funded detention camp for immigration is a grotesque mix of cruelty and political theatre. You don’t solve immigration by erasing people into tents guarded by the Gators.
Betty Osceola, a member of the Miccosukee tribe and one of the organizers of Sunday’s protest against the detention centre, said on Sunday that the gates to the facility were registered for the first time just days after Uthmeier announced his intention to reside in the property.
When the protesters chanted and waved signs declaring “The Everglades ice is melting,” they saw the steady flow of the SUV and Sprinter van and there was a black window into the facility.
At the only facility near the runway, she said she saw the generator and solar panels.
“What about nothing signed on the dotted line? But are they already in there?” she said. “It’s very concerning: the speed at which things are happening and the secret behind what’s going on.”
