(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump will visit Florida’s controversial immigration detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” as it opens Tuesday.
The center, fast-tracked by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, is located deep in the state’s Everglades wetlands on the site of the abandoned Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in the Big Cypress National Preserve.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem will also visit the center, according to DHS.
The facility will include temporary structures such as heavy-duty tents and trailers to house detained immigrants. The state has estimated that by early July, it will have 5,000 immigration detention beds in operation.
Environmental groups, human rights activists oppose ‘Alligator Alcatraz’
Environmental groups fear the site will harm the Everglades’ ecosystem, which is teeming with massive reptiles, including alligators and Burmese pythons.
The ill-fated airport originally planned for the space was abandoned in 1970 after an environmental report warned building a massive airport in the Everglades would “lead to land drainage and development for agriculture, transportation, and services in the Big Cypress Swamp which will inexorably destroy the south Florida ecosystem and thus the Everglades National Park,” according to the National Park Service.
Some Native American leaders claim the center encroaches on sacred land. There are 15 traditional Miccosukee and Seminole villages, as well as ceremonial and burial grounds and other gathering sites, in Big Cypress National Preserve, where the airstrip is located.
Human rights activists have called the facility inhumane and raised issues with potentially thousands of people being housed in temporary tents and trailers during Florida’s hurricane season.
DHS decries ‘lazy’ lawsuit to halt ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ opening
DeSantis’ office said the detention is a “necessary staging operation for mass deportations located at a preexisting airport that will have no impact on the surrounding environment.”
DeSantis has also touted the area’s wildlife as a positive: “Clearly, from a security perspective, if someone escapes, you know, there’s a lot of alligators. No one’s going anywhere.”
Environmental groups late Friday filed a last-minute lawsuit to halt the facility’s opening.
The Department of Homeland Security has also backed the detention center, calling the lawsuit “lazy,” and adding that it “ignores the fact that this land has already been developed for a decade.”
Florida is also reportedly considering a second processing center at Camp Blanding, a National Guard training base.
NewsNation’s Anna Kutz and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Author: Brooke Shafer
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