Concerns over a migrant detention facility’s potential effect on the Everglades and Florida Bay led backcountry guide and councilman Steve Friedman to present a resolution opposing such development at a July 22 meeting.
His colleagues didn’t support the measure.
Led by Gov. Ron DeSantis, state emergency management officials constructed a migrant detention facility — referred to as “Alligator Alcatraz” — at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport. On the 57-year-old airstrip is a facility consisting of white tents, RVs and portable buildings. There are also vehicles and thousands of people — migrants in federal custody, and their guards.
With capacity to house thousands, the facility is part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to remove migrants who are believed to have entered the country illegally. Recently, flights have transported migrants from the facility to other countries. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Garrett Ripa said at a July 25 press conference that 100 illegal migrants were removed.
Noting the Everglades’ fragile ecosystem and its importance to South Florida’s drinking water, Friedman’s resolution sought to inform state leaders, including DeSantis, state Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez and state Rep. Jim Mooney of the village’s opposition to the facility. It also urged the state to identify and select an alternative location more environmentally suitable for a detention facility.
In his statements to the council, Friedman said his resolution solely focused on the environmental aspect of the facility, and not the specific type of development.
“I would be bringing forth this resolution should it be a school, a hospital or church that’s going in there,” he said. “We don’t want any prisons, we don’t want any development and we don’t want any incinerators.
“That’s another thing happening with this development that’s going on,” Friedman said. “It’s invited others to think if this indeed is a temporary detention center as they allude to … one Miami county commissioner suggested that it should be a site to consider for a garbage incinerator.”
Councilwoman Deb Gillis and Vice Mayor Don Horton acknowledged their preference to support the “good things” going on in the Everglades, such as the $4 billion Everglades Agricultural Area reservoir. Recently, DeSantis and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reached an agreement allowing the state to take the lead on the reservoir. Located south of Lake Okeechobee, it will store over 78 billion gallons of water and deliver up to 470 billion gallons of clean water annually to the Everglades and Florida Bay. It also supports the Biscayne Aquifer, the primary source of drinking water for the Keys.
“We need to put faith in our governor if he’s going to put millions of dollars on an airstrip still existing out there that he’s not going to damage the Everglades by using this site that’s previously developed,” Horton said.
Councilwoman Anna Richards said Friedman’s resolution should be taken up for advocacy groups including Captains for Clean Water and Florida Bay Forever.
“Those are the people who should be dealing with this. This is not Islamorada business,” she said.
Mayor Sharon Mahoney applauded Friedman’s enthusiasm, but she said he was trying to equate the environment with the deportation of people.
“I really don’t think it’s in our jurisdiction to do that. Protect the Everglades one-hundred-million percent, but by going against this we’re saying we’re going against what our governor is doing,” she said.
Friedman said anything happening in the Everglades affects Islamorada.
“This is about leaving the Everglades alone and that’s why we’re trying to protect our community, because of how we rely on that area and clean water coming south,” he said.
Friedman’s motion didn’t receive any second for a vote. As a result, the resolution failed.
Several groups are fighting the migrant detention camp in the Everglades. On June 27, Friends of the Everglades and Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Florida Division of Emergency Management and Miami-Dade County for what they say is a “reckless plan for a massive detention center” in the heart of the Everglades. Per the lawsuit, the plan didn’t go through any environmental review as required under federal law, and the public had no opportunity to comment.
