In a few days, an isolated training airport in Everglades, in which endangered Florida Panthers Roam became an extensive immigration discovery center, became “Alligator Alcatraz”, which is modeled on the regular answers of the state to hurricanes and partially installed by companies, whose owners donated the Republicans to the Republicans.
It has been less than two weeks since the state confiscated Miami-Dade County’s property. Massive tents were built and a constant stream of trucks with portable toilets, asphalt and building materials were driven around the clock by the location in the Big Cypress National Preserve, in which the environmentalists fear that they will have devastating effects on the wild animals in the protected wetlands.
“We are dealing with a storm,” said Jae Williams, spokesman for the Republican Attorney General in Florida, James Uthmeier, who is attributed to the proposal as an architect. “And the name of the storm is immigration.”
The first prisoners arrived in the facility on Thursday, which will cost 450 million US dollars and consists of tents and supporters, which are surrounded by razor wire to Swampland, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of downtown Miami.
The Republicans called it after one of the best -known prisons in the United States and have charged it as a momentary lockup that is of vital importance for President Donald Trump’s approach.
Opponents decipher it as a political stunt and fear that he could be permanently. The Republican Party Florida took donations from the internment camp and decorated with the name of the facility with the name of the facility.
“The proposal was introduced without public contributions in one of the ecologically sensitive regions of Florida and probably the United States,” said Eve rehearsals, Executive Director of Friends of the Everglades, which belong to environmental groups that sue to stop the project.
Some GOP donors whose companies helped build up and assist the facility have seven-digit amounts. Five democratic legislators of the state who tried to visit the site on Thursday gave an explanation with which they enrich “a pay-for-play system to enrich GOP donors under the pretext of the border enforcement” called. One of the legislators, Senator Shevrin Jones, provided them on social media that they were denied access.
Florida built “Alligator Alcatraz” by using specialist knowledge from his reaction to hurricanes
Hot, wet summer; Regular floods; And wild animals living wild, which include alligators and toxic snakes, make the area in which the internment camp is located until long -term life.
For the state emergency management employee who headed the project, this was no different than reacting to another hurricane, only with more chain-link fences and barbed wire, which, according to state officials, stretch more than 28,000 feet.
Florida’s leaders are proud of the state’s disaster capacity, a specialist knowledge that is sharpened by tropical storms that sweep ashore year after year. Florida had a system and a command structure as well as a fleet of providers who were ready to set up portable generators, floodlights, momentary kitchens and bathrooms, said officials.
“We understand how we can act quickly in view of an emergency,” said Kevin Guthrie, director of the Florida emergency management department, who, alongside Desantis and Trump, in one of the momentary accommodations during an unveiling in the facility. “We can translate this knowledge into what we did here,” added Guthrie.
Human rights representatives say this is not a storm, but people – people who could be indefinite under inhumane conditions.
Uthmeier said the location has the advantages of an existing location and a runway of 10,500 feet, whereby the Everglades serve as a natural security forces. For Desantis, the place in the strong and remote Everglades was meant as a deterrent from flight, similar to the Republicans of the California island, which they then named.
It is also another sign of how the Trump government and its allies rely on fear tactics to illegally convince people in the country to voluntarily go.
GOP donors are paid for the work “Alligator Alcatraz”
The providers selected for the project include Lemoine CDR Logistics and CDR Health Care, Carlos Duart, a gigantic Republican donor who, together with his business, gave millions of dollars to political committees for Desantis, Trump and other GOP candidates. CDR Companies has been a provider of the state for years and offers engineering, emergency and health services across the country.
Duart confirmed the participation of his companies in the Associated Press, but refused to state the services they provided, under which a confidentiality agreement was cited. When asked whether his business was selected for his political support, he said: “We are selected because we do extraordinary work.”
A database with government contracts also showed that the Alliance Holdings Inc. von Granny signed a contract of 3.3 million US dollars for the provision of meals in the facility. IRG Global Emergency Management had completed a deal of 1.1 million US dollars for the provision of flight and company support services. Some of the company’s vehicles were seen in the facility, as can be seen in the AP.
In a sign of its importance for the immigration agenda of the Trump government, the President toured the facility on Tuesday. The White House published in his social media account is a graphic of the president who, alongside alligators with immigration and customs authorities, was under text by “Alligator Alcatraz: Make America Safe again”.
The Everglades ecosystem is frail
In recent decades, 3.9 billion US dollars of federal and state funds have been provided for the restoration of grassland in the Everglades. The ecosystem was degraded and transformed when a highway that Tampa and Miami connected was built in 1928.
In response to the complaint of the environmental groups via the internment camp, the Federal Government announced in court files that the US Ministry of Homeland Security had not approved or financed the facility that the state is established and energetic.
However, Florida plans to apply for a payment from the federal government.
Desantis described it as temporarily without the wastewater ducts being planned and claims that the Everglades will “no effects” on the Everglades. His government confirmed this attitude in court files that reacted to the lawsuit.
But the opponents still fear that it will be enduring.
“If it gets more permanently, this is a bigger problem, since these types can permanently remove these types out of the site so that they can never return,” said Elise Bennett, a senior lawyer from the Center for Biological Diversity, who also joined the lawsuit to stop building. “Our concerns are now great and only grow bigger if this project progresses.”
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Follow Mike Schneider on the social platform bluesky: @mikeysid.bsky.social. Kate Payne is a member of the Corps for the “Associated Press/Report” initiative for America Statehouse News. The report for America is a non -profit National Service program that reports journalists in local news editorial offices on hidden topics.
