Environmentalists are suing to stop the opening of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “Alligator Alcatraz,” a new migrant detention facility that will hold up to 3,000 detainees in Florida’s Everglades.
A pet project of the governor championed by Republicans, the facility—surrounded by alligator-infested swamplands—is slated to open as early as Tuesday.
But two environmental groups, Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, have sued in Miami’s federal court, arguing that the facility violates the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act, and that the state moved ahead with construction without conducting required environmental reviews, The Washington Post reported.
“The direct and indirect harm to nearby wetlands, wildlife, and air and water quality, and feasible alternatives, must be considered,” the lawsuit reads. “The hasty transformation of the Site into a mass detention facility… poses clear environmental impacts.”
The Department of Homeland Security dismissed environmentalists’ concerns.
“It’s a lazy lawsuit, and it ignores the fact that this land has already been developed for a decade,” Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for DHS, which includes ICE, told the Post.
DeSantis’ spokesperson said that they plan to oppose the lawsuit in court.
“Governor Ron DeSantis has insisted that Florida will be a force multiplier for federal immigration enforcement, and this facility is a necessary staging operation for mass deportations located at a pre-existing airport that will have no impact on the surrounding environment,” spokesman Bryan Griffin said in an email to the Associated Press. “We look forward to litigating this case.”
On Friday, DeSantis gave Fox News a tour of the facility, which would house undocumented immigrants in brutal, humid conditions under giant plastic tents in the middle of the marsh, surrounded by alligator-infested swampland.
DeSantis called the facility “as secure as it gets” and said that even if an undocumented immigrant were to escape, “You’ve got nowhere to go.”
The Everglades is the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States. It spans 2 million acres across central and south Florida and is home to dozens of threatened or endangered species, including American crocodiles, wood storks, American flamingos, and manatees.
“This site is more than 96% wetlands, surrounded by the Big Cypress National Preserve, and is habitat for the endangered Florida panther and other iconic species,” Friends of the Everglades Executive Director Eve Samples elaborated further in a news release. “This scheme is not only cruel, it threatens the Everglades ecosystem that state and federal taxpayers have spent billions to protect.”
The state has said it would cost $450 million to build and maintain the site, which would be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
