As Gov. Ron DeSantis insists the immigrant detention center in the Everglades is temporary, photos shared by an environmental law group show new construction using what appears to be asphalt.
The opening of the detention center drew almost immediate backlash and a lawsuit from environmental groups, arguing against construction in the highly sensitive environment of the Big Cypress National Preserve.
DeSantis labeled environmental concerns as illegitimate, claiming that construction occurred over already developed facilities, like the tarmac and taxiway, of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, and that any waste would be removed.
Aerial photographs from Friends of the Everglades, one of the groups suing federal and state officials, taken Saturday show land where grass has been removed and recently paved-over areas.
Other images that Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity entered as evidence in the suit show newly paved roads and light brightening the night sky from the detention center that were visible from approximately 15 miles away. Evidence shows the progression of the paved areas before and during construction.
“The environmental impacts will be devastating,” the groups wrote to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on Thursday. “Defendants cannot hide from this fact — or from the public — under cover of darkness and avoid their responsibilities under federal law.”
The groups are suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Florida Division of Emergency Management, and Miami-Dade County alleging construction of the detention center violates a federal law that requires environmental analysis of potential harms and that the public did not get an opportunity to comment.
“The Governor is absolutely correct, Alligator Alcatraz was built only on existing runway facilities and paved areas,” a spokesperson for FDEM wrote in an email to Florida Phoenix. “All of those photos show pre-existing paved areas.”
During a Monday press conference in Jacksonville, DeSantis said the temporary structures from the 3,000-capacity tent and trailer detention center eventually would be broken down and moved. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, who publicly rolled out the detention center he dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” announced on Wednesday that hundreds of people would arrive at the detention center that night.
“What we’re doing is temporary,” he said. “We’re not going to make permanent sites on these locations. You know, the place down in South Florida, it’s just a massive airport that’s there in the Everglades.”
Last week, the federal government distanced itself from responsibility for the site in its response to the suit, saying the federal regulations didn’t apply because it didn’t fund or authorize construction of the center.
President Donald Trump applauded Uthmeier for his role in opening the detention center during his July 1 visit.
“I know you’re taking a little heat from some environmental groups, but I take it all the time,” the president said. “That’s an honor.”
Cisco says
You, do know that before 1964 and the Great Society of LBJ that people actually had to find their own means of support and were responsible for all debts that they may have made. The country wanted all people to work and have the American Dream that they earned without any help from their Uncle Sam 😢 I don’t think that anyone would mind any immigration where they would make their own way to their Dream, btw,before all of the giveaways pregnant women were not allowed to enter the country without someone sponsoring them. I suppose that you would let someone just force their way into your home and you will house them, feed them, pay all of their medical bills with you having no consent on allowing them to do all of this to you,then I suggest that all of the people that feels this way to ask the President to send you 1,2,3, or 4 and you foot the whole bill,I personally did not sign up for any of this BS,and no other country does either, and we must all be what they think of us, that we are all American Fools. I hope that you have the bravery to publish this and not just your liberal point of view 😉
don miller says
could be resurfaced of what already there. show before and after non photoshopped pics if for real. can’t trust the side that hid Biden’s brain for 4 years..
What Else Is New says
The fascist, unAmerican Trump wanna be DeSantis is creating a concentration camp in our beloved environmentally sensitive Everglades. DeSantis has failed as a leader in Florida, thus he needs a distraction. So here we are. A concentration camp to hold slaves who will be farmed out to CEO’s for free labor.
Skibum says
“Don’t believe anything you hear, and only half of what you see” has been very good advice I received many years ago, and it is spot on when it comes to anything that comes out of the mouths of our maga mush brain president or his mini-maga, brown nosed sycophant that we unfortunately have as the governor of this state. When their mouths open, you can expect nothing less than lie after lie to spout forth. But of course we all learned this truth way before now.
laurel says
So it’s an honor to take heat from environmental groups.
This is our Everglades! The one and only in the world. You tell me, Trump, what you are going to do with all the human, food and other wastes! You clearly don’t give a damn as long as maga worships you, right? As long as you can use people. DeSantis, you are no different. It’s all about you, isn’t it? Jobs, jobs, jobs! Nothing like high level government jobs.
Asses.
Jake from state farm says
More of the same from the left, spinning the truth like a fine silk thread.So, according to the State, “Alligator Alcatraz” (a name so ominous it practically reeks of conspiracy) was built exclusively on existing runway facilities and paved areas. But, hold on, this “inconvenient truth” is absolutely true, according to the magical tool we call Google Earth. Yes, you can practically see it with your own eyes: the so-called “newly paved” area? Surprise, it was already a parking lot for aircraft. Hardly groundbreaking, in fact, it’s just about the least sinister thing you could possibly imagine.
So this article with its title and content tries to make it sound like the world is coming to an end. It acts like some vast conspiracy where huge swathes of untouched land were mercilessly paved over. That’s simply not the case. Nothing was “paved over” in some nefarious act of land-grabbing; it was just, repaving. Perhaps to make it more comfortable for it’s new temporary residents.
The article’s authors are clearly counting on the fact that a certain group of people—those who think it was the Best Biden ever. Because why fact-check when you can just believe whatever feeds your confirmation bias, right?
So, there you have it. The truth is out there, but it’s buried under layers of half-truths and exaggerations that only those who want to believe the worst will ever bother to unearth. Wouldn’t want to let facts get in the way of a good story, would we?
The states claims are not “Belied”.
Skibum says
Cisco, your comment seems to suggest that everything prior to 1964 was just like it is today, except for policies pertaining to migrant women being more lenient (or liberal) in today’s society. Do you not remember that the entire philosophy of a woman’s role in society was seen as completely different in that era? Women were discouraged from seeking employment, and the jobs they were able to get were very limited to certain jobs that men declared were “suitable” for women to be allowed to do.
Minority citizens, men and women, were not afforded the same constitutional rights that white U.S. citizens had… they could not sit and eat at food counters in stores such as Woolworth or even at many restaurants, they could not drink out of “white only” drinking fountains or stay at any hotel or motel in the entire nation that they wished to visit, they could not sit where they wanted to on city buses in southern state, etc.
Women in that era were taught by society that their place was pretty much to be barefoot and naked, if not pregnant or ready to pop out another baby for their man they had better be in the kitchen making something for him to eat! And in that era, for a brave, extremely smart black woman mathematician with a brain like a calculator to be accepted by other engineers and scientists at NASA during the rush to put an American astronaut in space was a hill too far for many American men to swallow.
So what’s your point? Democrat presidents like LBJ opened people’s minds and passed legislation that gave women and minorities the rights that they should have had under the U.S. Constitution all along, and yet you make it seem like that is a bad thing. So I have to ask… do you have a woman in your household, and do you still keep her barefoot and naked in the kitchen like some antiquated slave girl to only do your bidding? If you have a daughter, would you wish that same existence for her?
Skibum says
Cisco, I misquoted… the reference I meant to say was “barefoot and pregnant”.
Cisco says
Skibum,I only was implying that everyone should work for what they get in life, and not honor a President that led to a welfare program that led to fatherless homes and killed more of our young soldiers by mismanagement of the Vietnam War. Why is it that such a man that put out all of the drunken slackers out of the fort to live with the Indians because they didn’t work to provide protection and food for their own substance is vilified in today society in the state that he started ,for not wanting them to take away from the people that did and was only able to provide for the ones who did work, in other words you have to as individuals make sure that you are providing for your own family and give to only to the disabled ,retired elderly, and children. I personally don’t want any responsibility for anyone that did not ask my government or myself to be responsible for, you can have that right if you so desire.
Laurel says
Don Miller: Your lack of trust is unjustified. I just looked up the area on Google Earth, and it shows the old strip as it was “imagery date 2024.” Look for yourself: Dade-Collier Training and Transportation Airport. Maybe your mistrust should be aimed at Trump and DeSantis instead.
Why is it that the far right never, ever, ever, ever acknowledges Ronald Reagan’s actual diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease while he was still in office? Yet, with no such diagnosis of dementia for Biden, they insist it exists? But, Reagan is still the Republican hero.
Interesting. Unreasonable, but interesting. Logic has no place in the current administration.
Laurel says
Jake fsf: Repaved is correct. No one said “mercilessly paved over the environment.” As an Independent, it appears to me that the right spin like Whirling Dervishes. You seem to have no bones about it, either. If you want to pretend to be factual, you’re doing a bad job of it. If you really want the truth to be out there, look beyond your own biased nose.
The real issue is, they ARE making concentration camps. Step by step, Trump is following the authoritarian playbook. Y’all continue to make excuses for every sick thing this man does. He didn’t mean it. What he really meant was… It’s just his bluster. There is no list. It is freakin’ incredible what y’all believe, simply because you want to!
Now, from an environmental standpoint, what are they going to do with the waste from 5,000 people living in tents? Do tell, how does that work?
For the consideration of the people to be held there. Do you realize that the Everglades does not spray for mosquitos? I camped out there and sprayed myself from head to toe with deet, missing one spot on the back of my right hand. It became swollen with bites. The air all around is a constant buzz sound, day and night. But I’m certain that the right consider this some sort of justification to the people who picked our fruits and vegetables, who cleaned our hotels and motels, and who helped take care of grandma. Go ahead, start YOUR spin! Just put on your cross before you do it.
Or, you can come back to planet Earth.
Laurel says
BTW, immigrants have always worked toward their dreams, even your relatives. The Cubans, the Irish, the Italians, the Germans, the Scandinavians, the French, the Mexicans, the South Americans, and now, the Central Americans, all work towards their dreams.
Now, these immigrants that y’all want out of here so bad, won’t any longer be paying in billions of dollars of taxes that they cannot collect on unless they become legal U.S. citizens. They won’t be paying billions of dollars into Social Security that they cannot collect on unless they become legal, U.S. citizens.
Your loss, my loss and your kids’ loss.
Brilliant.
Trump’ll fix it.
Laurel says
I stand corrected: DeSantis has repaved AND paved at the Dade-Collier Training site. It’s clear on Google Earth.