“Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention center planned in Florida
Florida Attorney General James Usmieryer has released a trailer video for Alligator Alcatraz, an immigration detention center scheduled to open in July.
As officials proceed with plans to open a new immigration detention facility called “Wannial Catraz” in the Everglades in Florida, the state’s GOP has begun selling themed shirts, hats and coolers.
The items are available at the party’s online store and feature a “Alligator Alcatraz” moniker surrounded by nail marks. The T-shirt and drink cooler also shows a stylized mock-up of the building, with large crocodiles and snakes in the foreground.
Gov. Ron Desantis said in an interview with Fox News on Friday that the new detention center will hold its first detainees by July 1.
“The boundaries are already set by Mother Nature,” Usmeyer said of the site in an interview posted to X.
The Florida GOP items reflect similar political merchandise that has been popularized by the Republicans in recent years, like his Trump campaign t-shirt embrace using his 2023 mug shot. More recently, Trump supporters were seized the moment NATO executive director Mark Latte said, “Daddy must sometimes use strong language.”
What is “Wannial Catraz”?
According to Uthmeier, the federal government on June 23rd approved a proposal to open a 5,000-bed detention facility on 39 square miles of land in the Everglades. The Florida facility, which is estimated to cost $450 million a year, could ultimately accommodate up to 5,000 people, according to the US Department of Homeland Security.
The facility near Everglades National Park has elicited resentment from local people and environmental groups. Two groups of Everglades Friends and the Center for Biodiversity have filed lawsuits against the Florida Department of Emergency Management, the Department of Homeland Security and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement to stop what they said.
Sierra Club Florida is also opposed to developments that it said were “irresponsible.”
“This 30-square-mile area is completely surrounded by the Everglades,” Usmeyer said in a video proposing the site. “It presents an efficient, low-cost opportunity to build temporary detention facilities because you don’t have to invest that much in the boundary line. People don’t go out and wait too much for anything other than crocodiles and pythons.
Within days, trucks brought the materials, the Department of Homeland Security granted approval, and FEMA money would be used to support it, and the governor’s office announced that the state would use emergency powers to control the land from Miami-Dade County.
The governor said Fox and Friends co-host Steve Doocy is set to hold more than 3,000 undocumented immigrants. “We have a huge runway right away. If any of the federal assets want to go back to their country, then we can have a one-stop shop it.”
The move has bolstered efforts by both DeSantis and the Trump administration to seize and send undocumented immigrants in Florida and across the country, and a few weeks after the president ordered federal agencies to resume the original, infamous Alcatraz, San Francisco tourist attractions, “House America’s most violent and violent.”
Where is “Wannial Catraz” located?
The “Wannial Catraz” facility is located in O’Coupe, Florida, just north of Everglades National Park and approximately 36 miles west of the Miami Business District, CNN reports.
According to Miami International Airport, Dade Carrier Airport is used as a training facility for “commercial pilots, private training and a handful of military touch and go.”
It is also around the homelands of Mikkoski and Seminole ancestors of Florida. Tribal members condemned the development of detention camps on Indigenous lands.
The facility was built in 1968 and was originally known as the Everglades Jetport, but environmental investigations and activist protests killed the plan, according to the National Park Service.
In 1974, President Geraldford established the Big Cypress National Reserve in the area, the country’s first national reserve. The Wannial Catraz site is approximately 6 miles from the Big Cypress National Reserve.
Contributors: Melina Kahn, USA Today, Antonio Finn, USA Today Network; Reuters.
Kathryn Palmer is a national trending news reporter for USA Today. You can contact her kapalmer@usatoday.com And with x @Kathrynplmr.
