XPost: fl.politics, misc.immigration.usa, talk.politics.guns
XPost: sac.politics

The first group of immigrants has arrived at a new detention center
deep in the Florida Everglades that officials have dubbed
�Alligator Alcatraz,� a spokesperson for Republican state Attorney
General James Uthmeier told The Associated Press.

�People are there,� Press Secretary Jae Williams said, though he
didn�t immediately provide further details on the number of
detainees or when they arrived.

�Next stop: back to where they came from,� Uthmeier said on the X
social media platform Wednesday. He�s been credited as the
architect behind the Everglades proposal.

�Stood up in record time under @GovRonDeSantis � leadership & in
coordination with @DHSgov & @ICEgov, Florida is proud to help
facilitate @realDonaldTrump �s mission to enforce immigration law,�
the account for the Florida Division of Emergency Management posted
to the social media site X on Thursday. Requests for additional
information from the office of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and
FDEM, which is building the site, were not returned early Thursday
afternoon.

The facility, at an airport used for training, will have an initial
capacity of about 3,000 detainees, DeSantis said. The center was
built in eight days and features more than 200 security cameras,
28,000-plus feet (8,500 meters) of barbed wire and 400 security
personnel.

WATCH: Trump visits Florida�s �Alligator Alcatraz,� urges more
states to open ICE detention sites

Immigrants who are arrested by Florida law enforcement officers
under the federal government�s 287(g) program will be taken to the
facility, according to an official in President Donald Trump�s
administration. The program is led by Immigration and Customs
Enforcement and allows police officers to interrogate immigrants in
their custody and detain them for potential deportation.

The facility is expected to be expanded in 500 bed increments until
it has an estimated 5,000 beds by early July.

A group of Florida Democratic state lawmakers headed to the
facility Thursday to conduct �an official legislative site visit,�
citing concerns about conditions for detainees and the awarding of
millions of dollars in state contracts for the construction.

�As lawmakers, we have both the legal right and moral
responsibility to inspect this site, demand answers, and expose
this abuse before it becomes the national blueprint,� the
legislators said in a joint statement ahead of the visit.

Federal agencies signaled their opposition Thursday to a lawsuit
brought by environmental groups seeking to halt operations at the
detention center. Though Trump applauded the center during an
official tour earlier this week, the filing on behalf of the
Department of Homeland Security seemed to try to distance his
administration from the facility, and said no federal money to date
has been spent on it.

�DHS has not implemented, authorized, directed, or funded Florida�s
temporary detention center. Florida is constructing and operating
the facility using state funds on state lands under state emergency
authority and a preexisting general delegation of federal authority
to implement immigration functions,� the U.S. filing says.

Human rights advocates and Native American tribes have also
protested against the center, contending it is a threat to the
fragile Everglades system, would be cruel to detainees because of
heat and mosquitoes, and is on land the tribes consider sacred.

It�s also located at a place prone to frequent heavy rains, which
caused some flooding in the tents Tuesday during a visit by
President Donald Trump to mark its opening. State officials say the
complex can withstand a Category 2 hurricane, which packs winds of
between 96 and 110 mph (154 and 177 kph), and that contractors
worked overnight to shore up areas where flooding occurred.

According to images shared with the AP, overnight Wednesday,
workers put up new signs labeled �Alligator Alcatraz� along the
sole highway leading to the site and outside the entrance of the
airfield that has been known as the Dade-Collier Training and
Transition Airport. State officials seized the county-owned land
where the facility is located using emergency powers authorized by
an executive order issued by the governor.

DeSantis and other state officials say locating the facility in the
rugged and remote Florida Everglades is meant as a deterrent � and
naming it after the notorious federal prison of Alcatraz, an island
fortress known for its brutal conditions, is meant to send a
message. It�s another sign of how the Trump administration and its
allies are relying on scare tactics to try to persuade people in
the country illegally to leave voluntarily.

State and federal officials have touted the plans on social media
and conservative airwaves, sharing a meme of a compound ringed with
barbed wire and �guarded� by alligators wearing hats labeled �ICE�
for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Republican Party of
Florida has taken to fundraising off the detention center, selling
branded T-shirts and beer koozies emblazoned with the facility�s
name.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/first-immigration-detainees- arrive-at-alligator-alcatraz-in-florida-everglades

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