MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – The Florida Department of Emergency Management has taken over an old airfield to detain undocumented migrants.
The site of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport has unofficially been dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”
Local 10’s cameras captured truck after truck driving into the airfield Tuesday, with industrial lights and generators among the many items brought inside.
From Sky 10, rows of trailers were spotted all around the property.
“The state has exercised the executive powers that the governor has exerted through his executive order, and so they have moved forward,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.
The old airfield in the heart of the Florida Everglades will soon become a detention facility for migrants, according to Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier.
“You don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter,” he said. “If people get out, there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons.”
Protestors began sounding the alarm after learning of the idea.
Levine Cava said she reached out to the state when she heard about it to raise concerns.
“It is an area that we have invested as a nation billions of dollars for protecting our natural environment, our water supply,” she said. “It’s an area that is under federal oversight -- part of our restoration plans for the Florida Everglades.”
She asked for a review of the impacts, but got a lengthy response instead from the state on Sunday, which read, in part:
“Negotiations to buy the property are still underway, but the work has begun.”
The letter cited an “immigration emergency” and stated that “time is of the essence.”
The facility is set to house at least 1,000 migrants, for now, with tents and some infrastructure.
“We’re reviewing everything from a legal perspective,” said Levine Cava.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem recently thanked Florida, saying FEMA will help fund this very big effort.
Demonstrators fear this is getting out of hand.
The concerns are possible impacts on an already sensitive environment. Also, for immigration advocates, what are the standards? Will this be more of a tent city with some infrastructure?
The facility could be up and running by early July.