The abandoned Florida airport being turned into ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

A convoy of trucks carrying tents, building materials and portable toilets flows in an airport practically abandoned in the picturesque Everything of Florida, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

But they do not help build the next major tourist attraction in the region.

Instead, they throw the foundations for a new migrant detention center, nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz”.

The installation, in the middle of a swamp in Miami, was proposed by state legislators to support the expulsion program of US President Donald Trump.

“You do not need to invest as much in the perimeter. If people are going out, there is not much to wait for them that alligators and pythons,” explains the prosecutor general of the state, James Uthmeier, a republican, in a video on rock music and published on social networks.

The new detention center is built on the site of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, at around 43 miles (70 km) from the center of Miami, in the middle of the Everglades, an ecologically significant subtropical wetland.

The aerodrome where the detention center will be based is mainly a pilot training track surrounded by large swamps.

In the sweltering heat of summer with mosquitoes, we managed to move forward just a few meters in the compound when, as expected, a goalkeeper in a truck blocked our way.

We hear sounds from a small channel next to the compound. We wonder if it is fish, snakes or hundreds of alligators that roam the wetland.

Although the landing trail belongs to the county of Miami-Dade, the decision to transform it into a detention center was taken following an executive decree in 2023 by the republican governor Ron Desantis, invoking emergency powers to stem the flow of undocumented migrants.

The new center, which, according to the authorities, will have the capacity to accommodate around 1,000 prisoners and will start operations in July or August, quickly becomes a controversial symbol of the Trump administration’s immigration policy.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Desantis suggested that the Alligator Alcatraz built in the middle of a marsh may not be the last.

“We will probably also do something similar to the banding camp,” said Desantis, referring to the former American army training center at more than 300 miles in the north.

He said that a state manager “worked on this” and would have an official announcement “very, very quickly”.

Like Trump orders the immigration authorities to carry out “The biggest mass expulsion program in history”, according to human rights organizations, say that detention centers are overcrowded.

According to data obtained by CBS News, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has a record of 59,000 prisoners nationwide, or 140% above its capacity.

Betty Osceola, member of the Native American community Miccosukee, lives near the site and recently participated in an event against the installation.

She suspects that rather than being a temporary site, as the authorities have said, it will work for months or even years.

“I have serious concerns about environmental damage,” said Ms. Osceola while we were talking next to a channel where an alligator was swimming.

It is also concerned about the living conditions in which prisoners can be faced in the new installation.

These concerns are reproduced by environmental organizations, such as the friends of the Everglades and by human rights organizations in the United States

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida told the BBC that the proposed installation “is not only cruel and absurd. It emphasizes how our immigration system is increasingly used to punish people rather than to treat them.”

Even ice detention centers in populated areas, ACLU said: “Have well -documented history of medical negligence, denial of legal access and systemic ill -treatment”.

The BBC Mundo contacted the Florida Attorney General’s Office, but did not receive an answer.

In the social media video, Uthmeier says that the project is an “effective opportunity” and “at a low cost to build a temporary detention center”.

With “the Alligator Alcatraz”, he says, there will be “nowhere to go, nowhere to hide”.

The expansion, adaptation or construction of new detention centers have been one of the main challenges of the Trump administration in the acceleration of deportations.

Internal security secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement sent to the BBC that Florida will receive federal funds to establish the new detention center.

“We are working on Turbo Speed ​​on profitable and innovative means to put the mandate of the American people for mass deportations of illegal criminals,” she added.

“We are going to extend the installations and the bed space in a few days, thanks to our partnership with Florida.”

Noem claims that the installation will be funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is responsible for the coordination of disasters.

Daniella Levine Cava, the Democratic Mayor of the County of Miami-Dade, who owns the Tree Tree, says that she asked information to the state authorities.

The mayor “clearly explained several concerns” concerning the proposed use of the airport, namely funding and environmental impacts, said his office in a press release at the BBC.

While immigration raids have increased in cities like Los Angeles, operations to hold migrants seem to be much less widespread in the county of Miami Dade and southern Florida.

Many undocumented Latinos prefer to stay at home because they are afraid of being arrested and sent to detention centers, according to testimonies collected by BBC Mundo.