Ron DeSantis addressing reporters in the Florida Everglades on July 1, 2025. Credit: Screengrab via GovRonDeSantis/X

Gov. Ron DeSantis this week has been promoting his commitment to Everglades restoration amid the backlash and legal challenges to his construction of an immigrant detention center on an airstrip in the wetland ecosystem.

The governor signed a new agreement with the federal government on Friday, portraying it as Florida taking the lead on Everglades restoration projects, a goal DeSantis has been pursuing for years and has emphasized recently. Earlier this week, he marked a major milestone in the largest environmental restoration project ever: completion of a reservoir designed to prevent toxic algal blooms from polluting rivers in the state.

But his promotion of restoration efforts comes as he continues insisting the tent and trailer facility, meant to hold thousands of immigrants awaiting deportation, won’t harm the Everglades. His administration, the federal government, and Miami-Dade County officials are trying to ward off a legal battle from environmental groups over the speedy construction of the detention center at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport.

State leaders are calling the facility “Alligator Alcatraz,” arguing dangerous reptiles would deter escape attempts.

24/7 detention center operation

“This is an existing airport,” DeSantis said Friday morning, answering questions from reporters about the notorious detention center. “It’s existing concrete. They’re not doing anything outside of that footprint.”

Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity submitted in their plea to a federal court images of newly paved areas and light brightening the night sky from the detention center visible from approximately 15 miles away.

Tania Galloni, one of the attorneys representing Friends of the Everglades in the suit to halt the detention center, called laughable the notion that the 24/7 operation of a detention center in the Big Cypress National Preserve wouldn’t disrupt the habitat.

“He can’t claim to be the Everglades governor on one hand, and then plunk down this mass facility in the heart of the Everglades on the other hand,” she said in a phone interview with Florida Phoenix.

Although DeSantis denied new construction at the site during his press conference, the state has a $37 million contract with LTS Inc. that includes funding for permanent and temporary fencing and roadway construction, according to a copy of the contract obtained by NOTUS before state officials seemingly deleted dozens of contracts from a database.

Kevin Guthrie, head of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which is in charge of the detention center, defended “minor paving projects” in response to the lawsuit.

“It is simply implausible that small-scale paving on previously developed land will cause irreparable environmental harm when the paving is next to a nearly two-mile-long paved runway,” the agency argued in a filing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

After Florida ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ visit, Trump says he wants more states to build immigrant detention centers

Governor’s quest for power over Everglades restoration

DeSantis’ announcement of a new agreement with the federal government also came after the governor asked President Donald Trump to grant the state authority to finish the 10,100-acre Everglades Agricultural Area reservoir on its own rather than continuing its partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The governor has brought up the matter in press conferences throughout the year, stating that Florida could finish the project at a much quicker pace.

“I would do that. Okay, let me ask myself: Permission granted,” Trump said during a July 1 roundtable at the detention center.

But it appears that DeSantis didn’t get exactly what he asked for.

While he wanted the Army Corps cut out of the process and for the federal government to block grant Florida the funds to complete the project, the new agreement still leaves the feds in charge of the main reservoir. However, Florida will handle the inflow and outflow pump stations and auxiliary features, a change that DeSantis said would speed completion by five years, to 2029.

Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.

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