NPCA: Alligator Alcatraz Is "Absurd"

The move by the state of Florida, with the Trump administration's encouragement, to build a prison inside Big Cypress National Preserve is "a cruel and absurd proposal," according to National Parks Conservation Association officials.

"Building a bare-bones tented detention center on hot tarmac in the middle of the Everglades and exposing imprisoned immigrants to the elements is a cruel and absurd proposal. The Everglades’ intense heat, humidity, and storms can be hazardous without proper precautions," said Melissa Abdo, NPCA's Sun Coast regional director. "This facility’s remote, harsh nature could leave people in very real danger, especially as Florida’s heat index skyrockets and hurricane season escalates."

Dubbed the "Alligator Alcatraz" by Florida officials, the proposed detention camp would be located on an abandoned airstrip inside the national preserve and close to Everglades National Park.

The isolated airstrip is the sole remnant of a massive battle over the future of the Everglades from 1968, when the Dade County Port Authority wanted to build the world’s largest jetport there. The county acquired 39 square miles of property in what was then known as the Big Cypress Swamp, six miles north of Everglades National Park. Port authority officials laid out plans for runways six miles long where jets would take off every minute. For easy access to the site from either side of Florida, they proposed a new interstate highway and a high-speed monorail system, plus a “recreational waterway” for airboat travel.

But the project spurred an environmental battle that produced studies pointing out that the airport would produce copious quantities of sewage and industrial waste every day, not to mention thousands of tons of air pollution. The environmental report also predicted that the jetport would doom to extinction the already dwindling population of the Florida panther.

Florida Attorney General James Uthemeir last month said the location could be used to house immigrants rounded up by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents and targeted for deportation.

While construction on the detention center has started with the arrival of tents and kitchen facilities, a lawsuit filed last week by Friends of the Everglades and the Center For Biological Diversity asks for an injuction to halt the project, noting that the airport is located "within an environmentally sensitive freshwater wetland ecosystem of ecological significance for wildlife habitat. The Site is important for drinking water supply and Everglades water quality," and vital for many species considered threatened and endangered species under the Endangered Species Act.

“Development of this scale at this location would require massive changes to an ecologically delicate landscape, including running huge generators, trucking in massive amounts of food and water and trucking out waste," Abdo said late Tuesday. "Endangered wildlife, iconic national parks, and Florida’s fresh drinking water supply would be at risk from this ill-conceived plan. Communities and villages that live in the area, as well as the people detained and working at this facility, could all be at serious risk if the need arose to quickly evacuate from a hurricane, using only a single two-lane highway that’s currently under construction.

“The state and federal government have spent billions working to restore the Everglades. Now the government wants to spend millions on this atrocious plan that could undermine Florida’s national parks and the Everglades ecosystem people have worked so hard to protect."

The lawsuit brought against the project argues that creation of the detention center has been done without any environmental studies to meet federal or state laws. Florida officials have asked that the lawsuit be dismissed, arguing that it was brought "under an environmental statute—the National Environmental Policy Act—that places obligations on federal agencies, not state agencies."

The state's attorneys pointed out that housing for immigrants detained by ICE agents is sorely needed.

"In February 2025, ICE facilities were at 109% capacity with 42,000 detainees, forcing ICE to release some detainees. ICE had 47,600 detainees in March. By April, detainees were reportedly sleeping on floors," the state's filing (attached below) reads. "And disorder in a Miami immigration facility led to a riot that had to be forcibly suppressed. As of June 24, ICE was holding around 59,000 detainees, about 140% of budgeted capacity. States—which often work with federal officials to detain illegal aliens who commit state crimes—are also facing problems with detention capacity."