Photos: In the Everglades, hundreds, including Betty Osceola, rally against Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

Despite environmental concerns and a lawsuit contesting its operation, construction of Florida’s so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” is well underway in the Everglades. Last Saturday, while Gov. Ron DeSantis continued gloating after the state seized land to build a 5,000-bed facility to house people ensnared in Donald Trump’s mass deportation, protesters lined Tamiami Trail outside to share their discontent.

The Associated Press said that hundreds of activists—including environmentalists and Native Americans fighting for their ancestral home—stood on the shoulders of the roads while trucks hauled building materials into Dade Collier Training and Transition Airport. The facility could cost $450 million a year to operate, according to the Miami Herald, which added that funds would come from a FEMA program that the Biden administration used to support local governments and nonprofits that “house, feed, and transport immigrants released and processed by Homeland Security.”

Other issues that could come up as “Alligator Alcatraz” comes online including staffing and who’s going to operate the prison. “Is it a federal facility, or is it a state facility that is leased to the feds? That’s an important distinction,” he told WMNF Tampa last Friday.

Miccosukee Tribe member and activist Betty Osceola, who can walk to the future prison site from her chickee village, was also in the crowd, and told NBC, “It’s a place where we come for healing, where we come to pray.”
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