"Alligator Alcatraz" is happening.
Days after State Attorney James Uthmeier posted a video to X calling for a proposed immigrant detention facility at the site of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport — a remote and little-used airstrip near the Everglades — Gov. Ron DeSantis' office announced the state would use emergency powers to take control of the land away from Miami-Dade County to create "Alligator Alcatraz."
Alligators and snakes would help prevent runaways, Uthmeier said.
The governor's office said in a statement that the Florida Division of Emergency Management offered to buy the land, but Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava responded with an "unreasonable" counteroffer of $190 million.
"Time is of the essence," FDEM director Kevin Guthrie wrote to Cava. "We must act swiftly to ensure readiness and continuity in our statewide operations to assist the federal government with immigration enforcement."
The plan was met with pushback from environmentalists, conservationists, and Florida residents. Local advocates have organized a protest, and Miccosukee tribal leadership has asked the state to move the immigration detention site away from tribal homelands.
Cava said in a statement that the critical location required "considerable review and due diligence" as the "impacts to the Everglades ecosystem could be devastating." Her office said the county sent a letter listing multiple concerns about the project.
Here's what to know.
What is 'Alligator Alcatraz'?
On June 19, Uthmeier posted a video to X suggesting that the "virtually abandoned" Miami-Dade Collier Training and Transition Airport, a 39-square-mile airport facility with a 10,500-foot runway, could be easily converted into a temporary immigrant detention center to aid in Florida's efforts to locate and deport "criminal aliens."
"I call it Alligator Alcatraz," he said, over a pounding rock beat. "It’s 30 square-mile-area is completely surrounded by the Everglades. It presents an efficient low-cost opportunity to build a temporary detention facility because you don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter. People get out, there’s not much waiting for 'em other than alligators and pythons.
"Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide," he added.
The move comes as both DeSantis and the Trump administration ramp up measure to seize and deport undocumented immigrants in Florida and across the country, and weeks after President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to reopen the original infamous Alcatraz, long a San Francisco tourist attraction, to "house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders."
“Alligator Alcatraz” should be ready to receive detainees with 5,000 beds as soon as the first week of July, Uthmeier told controversial commentator Benny Johnson on June 23. He also said the facility is intended to be temporary.
"We'll have some light infrastructure, a lot of heavy duty tent facilities, trailer facilities," Uthmeier said. "We don't need to build a lot of brick-and-mortar."
Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem said in a post Monday that the new facilities "will in large part be funded by FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program," which she said the Biden administration "used as a piggy bank" to house undocumented immigrants.
Where is 'Alligator Alcatraz'?
The facility is in Ochopee, just north of Everglades National Park and about 36 miles west of the Miami business district, CNN reported.
According to the Miami International Airport, the Dade-Collier Airport is used as a training facility for "commercial pilots, private training, and a small number of military touch-and-goes."
The facility was constructed in 1968 and originally known as the Everglades Jetport, according to the National Park Service.
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