New aerial footage gives another view of the Everglades’ high-security immigration detention center at the “Wannial Catraz” in Florida.
Under Gov. Ron DeSantis’ directive, the facility opened on the runway earlier this month for thousands of undocumented immigrants and also served as a “transition shelter for immigrants.” Tent City is located at Dade Carrier Training and Transition Airport, about 45 miles west of Miami, and can only be accessed via a two-lane highway, Reuters reported.
The video shows the facility, with white tents, RVs and rows of portable buildings all filled with portable buildings surrounded by vast wetlands. Authorities have described the centre as “escape prevention” because of the terrain. The Everglades are home to alligators, crocodiles, various snakes and the Florida Panther, according to the National Park Service.
Florida’s emergency management department works with federal agencies, including ICE, to oversee the site, Reuters reported. The state estimates that the facility will cost more than $450 million a year.
Check out the new angles of Florida’s “Wannial Catraz” facility
See aerial video from above the Alligator Alcatraz Detention Center
Wannial Catraz is a new high-security immigration detention center located in the Everglades, Florida.
Trump says “may be as good as the real Alcatraz.”
After visiting the facility on July 1, President Donald Trump praised Florida officials for choosing an isolated wilderness spot, adding, “I think what we did is a great government.”
“They did this within a week,” Trump said. “You see it, it’s incredible… It might be as good as a real Alcatraz. Well, it’s creepy too. It’s a tough site.”
Trump added that the center “is not the place you want to go hiking right away,” and that “the only way to do it is really deportation.”
The new facility continues to voice concerns about the capabilities of state and national detention centers amid the increasing anxiety and pace of removal of immigrants from the United States.
Critics hugged people with no criminal history and denounced the new detention facility for internal conditions. The New York Times reported earlier this month that only about 60% of detainees had been criminally convicted, with 900 men sleeping in tents.
Others have expressed concern about the impact on the facility’s Evergrade itself, home to 36 threatened and endangered species species, according to the National Park Service.
Contributor: Fernando Cervantes Jr., USA Today Antonio Fins, Palm Beach Post
