The abandoned Florida airport being turned into ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

A truck convoy carrying tents, construction materials and portable toilets flows into a almost abandoned airport in Florida’s UNESCO World Heritage in Pitoresk Everglades.

However, they do not help build the region’s next major tourist attraction center.

Instead, they lay the foundations of a new immigrant detention facility called “Crocodile Alcatraz”.

The facility, which is in the middle of the Miami swamp, was proposed by state deputies to support the deportation of US President Donald Trump.

“You don’t have to invest this much in the environment so much. If people go out, the crocodiles and pythons do not wait for them except for the crocodiles and pythons,” James Uthmeier, the chief prosecutor of the state, set up to rock music and published on social media.

The new detention center is being built in the midst of Everglades in the Dade-Collier Eğitim and Transition Airport, which is an ecologically important subtropical wetland of Miami, about 43 miles (70km).

The airport, which will be based on the detention center, is mainly a pilot training track surrounded by wide swamps.

In the drowning summer heat with mosquitoes, as expected, we managed to progress only a few meters of compound when it prevented a protection path in a truck.

We hear sounds from a small channel next to the compound. We are wondering if there are hundreds of crocodiles circulating fish, snakes or wetlands.

Although the Air track belongs to Miami-time County, the decision to turn it into an detention center called the emergency powers to eliminate the flow of undocumented immigrants after the 2023 executive order of the Republican Governor Ron Desantis.

According to the authorities, the new center, which will host approximately 1,000 prisoners and start operations in July or August, is becoming a controversial symbol of the Trump administration’s migration policy.

While Trump orders immigration officials to realize the “the biggest mass deportation program in history”, the detention centers of Human Rights Organizations are overcrowded.

According to the data obtained by CBS News, immigration and Customs Protection (ICE) have 59,000 prisoners throughout the country, above 140% of its capacity.

Betty Osceola, a member of the Miccosukee Native American community, lives near the site and recently took part in a protest against the facility.

Instead of being a temporary site like the authorities, he suspects that he will operate for months or even years.

“I have serious concerns about environmental damage, Os Osceola says, talking next to a channel where a crocodile swims.

He is also concerned about the living conditions that the detainees may encounter in the new facility.

These concerns are echoed by environmental organizations such as Everglades friends and human rights organizations in the USA.

The American Union of Civil Freedoms from Florida (Aclu) said that the proposed facility was not just ruthless and ridiculous. He emphasizes that our immigration system is increasingly used to punish people rather than committing people.

Even the ice detention centers in fast areas, said the painful “well -documented medical negligence, rejection of legal access and systemic ill -treatment.”

BBC Mundo contacted the Florida Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, but did not receive response.

In his social media video, Uthmeier says the project is a “effective” and “low -cost opportunity to create a temporary detention facility”.

“Crocodile Alcatraz” with “anywhere to go, anywhere to hide,” he says.

The expansion, adaptation or construction of new detention centers has been one of the main challenges of Trump administration in accelerating deportation.

Internal Security Secretary Kristi Noem, said in a statement sent to the BBC, Florida will receive a federal fund to establish the new detention center, he said.

“At the turbo speed, we are working on the costly and innovative ways of fulfilling the authority of the American people to deport the mass deportation of illegal foreigners.”

“Thanks to our partnership with Florida, we will expand the facilities and bed space only in days.”

NOEM said the facility will be financed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) responsible for disaster coordination.

Daniella Levine Java, the Mayor of Democratic Mayor of Miami-Padade, the owner of the Airstrip land, says he wants information from the state officials.

Mayor, the BBC said in a statement about the proposed use of the airport, ie “clearly a few concern” around the financing and environmental effects, he said.

Migration raids in cities such as Los Angeles are increasing, while operations to detain immigrants seem to be much less common in Miami Dade County and Southern Florida.

According to statements collected by BBC Mundo, many Latin -free Latin prefers to stay at home because they are afraid of being arrested and being sent to detention centers.