Florida officials have begun erecting a sprawling immigration-detention compound deep inside the Everglades, pressing ahead with a plan Attorney General James Uthmeier has branded “Alligator Alcatraz.” The state is converting the largely idle Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport—a 39-square-mile airfield built in the late 1960s—into what it calls a “temporary but secure” facility for migrants whom state and federal authorities seek to deport.
The airport, once envisioned as the world’s largest jetport, lies within Big Cypress National Preserve. Only one 10,500-foot runway and minimal infrastructure were ever completed after conservationists halted the original project in the 1970s.
Uthmeier says the surrounding swamp—home to alligators and invasive Burmese pythons—forms a natural barrier. “If someone escapes, there’s nowhere to hide, only the wildlife waiting,” he told business-news television while touting a start-up timeline of early July.
Plans call for heavy-duty tents and trailer complexes providing more than 5,000 beds, staffed by National Guard units. The annual operating bill is estimated at $450 million, with Florida seeking federal reimbursement.
Work crews broke ground this week under emergency powers Governor Ron DeSantis invoked in 2023 to address what he termed a “border crisis.” Those powers allow the state to commandeer public or private property if deemed necessary to cope with an emergency.
Hundreds of protesters—environmentalists, Big Cypress tribal members, and local residents—rallied outside the airport over the weekend, calling the land “sacred” and warning of sewage, lighting, and traffic impacts on an ecosystem that underpins South Florida’s water supply and harbors endangered panthers, wood storks, and snail kites. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava condemned the project in a letter citing “irreparable harm” to restoration efforts funded by taxpayers.
The detention build-out coincides with a White House directive ordering U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to triple daily arrests to 3,000, a target critics say is driving overcrowding in existing federal facilities and pushing states to add beds quickly.
State officials maintain the compound will be operational “within weeks,” yet legal challenges from environmental groups and potential federal permitting obstacles loom. Activists promise sustained protests, invoking the 1970s campaign that once stopped the Everglades Jetport. Whether “Alligator Alcatraz” opens on schedule—or ever—may hinge on the courts as much as on construction crews.
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