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A coalition of groups ranging from environmental activists to Native Americans defending their ancestors’ homelands gathered outside the Florida Everglades runway on Saturday to protest the immigration detention center.
Hundreds of protesters lined up parts of our Highway 41. This slices the wetland Everglades, also known as the Tamami Trail. The car that was supported received as protesters waved signs calling for protection of the vast reserve, home to some native tribes and some endangered animal species.
Ecologist Christopher McVoy said he saw a steady stream of trucks on the scene during hours of protest. The degradation of the environment was a major reason he came out on Saturday. But as a commissioner for the city of South Florida, he said concerns about immigrant raids in the city also encouraged his opposition.
“The people I know are shedding tears. I wasn’t far from it,” he said.
Florida officials made a move last week in building a compound called “Wannial Cutras” within the wet swamps of the Everglades.
The government has quickly tracked the project under an emergency from an executive order issued by Gov. Ron DeSantis, dealing with what he considers as an illegal immigration crisis. The order led the state to shun certain purchasing laws and is why construction continued despite objections from Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniela Levine Cava and local activists.
The facility will have temporary structures such as heavy duty tents and trailers to turn detained migrants into homes. The state estimates that 5,000 immigration detention beds will be operated by early July.
Compound supporters say that Florida’s marshland locations (filled with giant reptiles like crocodiles and invasive Burmese Pisons) have become ideal locations for immigration detention.
“Obviously, from a security standpoint, if someone runs away, there are a lot of crocodiles you know,” DeSantis said Wednesday. “No one’s going anywhere.”
Under DeSantis, Florida has been actively promoting immigration enforcement and has supported the wider federal crackdown on illegal immigration. The US Department of Homeland Security supports “Alligator Alcatraz,” and DHS Executive Director Christa Noem said it will be funded in part by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
However, Native American leaders in the area saw the construction as an infringement of their sacred homeland, prompting protests on Saturday. The Big Cypress National Reserve, where the runway is located, 15 traditional Mikkoski and Seminole villages, ceremonial and burial sites and other gathering sites remain.
Others raised human rights concerns about what they accused of immigrant inhuman housing. Anxious concerns about environmental impacts are also at the forefront, with groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Everglades filed a lawsuit on Friday to suspend plans for the detention center.
“The Everglades are a vast, interconnected system of waterways and wetlands, and what happens in one area can cause damage downstream.” “So it’s really important to have a clear sense of the impact of wetlands happening on the site.”
Desantis spokesman Bryan Griffin said Friday in response to the lawsuit that the facility was “a staging operation necessary for a massive deportation at an existing airport that does not affect the surrounding environment.”
Environmental groups say construction should be suspended until the site receives a comprehensive environmental review and public comment is requested. The facility’s expedited facility is “awful evidence” that state and federal agencies hope that if they are ordered by the court to do so, it will be “too late” to reverse their actions.
The potential environmental hazards have also been blown away by other aspects of Everglades’ life, including the robust tourism industry where hikers walk the trails on airboats and explore the marsh, said the Floridian Jessica Namas, the founder of public lands who attended the protest. To deploy immigration detention centres, the area will create areas that are not welcomed by visitors and feed the misconception that space is “nowhere,” she said.
“Everyone here sees exhaust smoke, sees the oil paintings on the road smooth, they can hear the pollution of sounds and noise. You can imagine what happens at night, and we are in an international dark sky area,” Namas said, “Again, it’s very frustrating because politicians have such a cutting.”
