Environmental groups sue to block migrant detention center rising in Florida Everglades

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit Friday to block a migrant detention center dubbed ''Alligator Alcatraz'' now being built on an airstrip in the heart of the Florida Everglades.

The lawsuit seeks to halt the project until it undergoes a stringent environmental review as required by federal and state law. There is also supposed to be a chance for public comment, according to the lawsuit filed in Miami federal court.

Critics have condemned the facility as a cruel and inhumane threat to the ecologically sensitive wetlands, while Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials have defended it as part of the state's aggressive push to support President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has praised Florida for coming forward with the idea, as the department looks to significantly expand its immigration detention capacity.

The center is set to begin processing people who entered the U.S. illegally as soon as next week, DeSantis said Friday on ''Fox and Friends.''

''The state of Florida is all in on President Trump's mission,'' DeSantis said on a tour of the facility. ''There needs to be more ability to intake, process and deport.''

The state is plowing ahead with building a compound of heavy-duty tents, trailers and other temporary buildings at the Miami Dade County-owned airfield in the Big Cypress National Preserve, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of downtown Miami.

The state Republican Party has even begun selling T-shirts and other merchandise emblazoned with the ''Alligator Alcatraz'' slogan.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity as well as the Friends of the Everglades, an organization started decades ago by ''River of Grass'' author and Everglades champion Marjory Stoneman Douglas to battle the original plan to build the airport. They are represented by the Earthjustice law firm and other attorneys including Florida writer Carl Hiaasen's son, Scott Hiaasen.

''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,'' said Eve Samples, Friends of the Everglades executive director, 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 lawsuit names several federal and state agencies as defendants, including the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

DeSantis's spokesman said they will 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," said spokesman Bryan Griffin in an email. "We look forward to litigating this case.''

A protest led by Native Americans who consider the land sacred is planned near the site on Saturday. There are 15 remaining traditional Miccosukee and Seminole tribal villages in Big Cypress, as well as ceremonial and burial grounds and other gathering sites.

''We need this project to stop,'' said Betty Osceola, a Miccosukee leader who lives near the facility.

''All this degradation that's going on, it's very concerning," she added.

The site of the detention center holds special significance for environmental activists, who half a century ago opposed a plan to build what was envisioned as the world's largest airport just north of Everglades National Park.

The plans generated widespread opposition, including from Douglas. She and others founded Friends of the Everglades to battle against the project, but it took Republican politicians to kill it.

A U.S. Geological Survey environmental impact statement, one of the first of its kind, concluded that the proposed airport would ''inexorably destroy the south Florida ecosystem and thus the Everglades National Park.''

That led GOP Florida Gov. Claude Kirk to withdraw state support for the airport, with President Richard Nixon following suit. The airport was halted, although one long runway remains.

But it didn't end there. With President Gerald Ford's support, the federal government for $150 million bought the surrounding land that on Oct. 11, 1974 became Big Cypress National Preserve, the nation's first, according to the preserve's website.

''Now, history is repeating itself as Friends once again must act to prevent destructive development in the heart of the Everglades ecosystem in the same location,'' reads the lawsuit filed Friday.

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This story has been corrected to show the last name of a Florida writer and his son is spelled Hiaasen, not Hiassen.

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Anderson reported from St. Petersburg, Fla. Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.