Florida AG proposes 'Alligator Alcatraz' migrant detention center in Everglades

OCHOPEE, Fla. -- Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is getting pushback from environmentalists who say they were "blindsided" by his proposal to build a temporary migrant detention center in the heart of the Everglades that he has dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz."

Friends of the Everglades, an environmental protection group, has sent Uthmeier and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis a letter asking them to reverse course on the plan to build the facility on land surrounded by alligator- and python-infested waters into a facility to hold people detained in the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration. In the letter, the group said the construction would "inflict significant damage on the Everglades ecosystem."

"This proposal just flies in the face of the public support for environmental protection," Allie Hartmann, communications director for Friends of the Everglades, told ABC News on Wednesday.

Hartmann said the land Uthmeier selected for the migrant detention center is surrounded by the Big Cypress National Preserve and is about six miles from the Everglades National Park.

Hartmann said that nearly 10,000 people have signed a petition Friends of the Everglades began circulating on Monday, asking Uthmeier and DeSantis to halt the plan.

In a video statement on Friday, Uthmeier announced the plan to build a temporary migrant detention center on a 39-square-mile parcel in the Everglades.

"Florida has been leading on immigration enforcement, supporting the Trump administration and ICE's effort to detain and deport criminal aliens," Uthmeier said in the video.

Uthmeier said he proposed the site after Gov. DeSantis tasked state leaders to identify places to put temporary detention centers.

"I think it's the best one. I call it 'Alligator Alcatraz,'" said Uthmeier, in reference to the former prison in the middle of San Francisco Bay that was closed in 1963 and eventually converted into a museum.

Uthmeier said the location is ideal for a detention center because it is surrounded by the Everglades and its predatory wildlife.

"It presents an efficient, low-cost opportunity to build a temporary detention facility because you don't need to invest that much in the perimeter," Uthmeier said in the video statement. "If people get out, there's not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons."

Uthmeier added, "Within 30 to 60 days after we begin construction, it could be up and running and could house as many as a thousand criminal aliens."

The governor is using the state emergency powers to commandeer the county-owned airstrip to build the detention center in the Everglades. The state is also considering building a second detention center at Camp Blanding, a Florida National Guard training site southwest of Jacksonville.

During a bill-signing event on Wednesday, DeSantis said the federal government is fully funding the construction of the detention center, which he said will be built "in a way that is not going to have impacts on our broader community."

"We can't have every illegal housed in our jails because we actually have non-illegals who need to be housed there when they commit crimes too," DeSantis said.

He added, "We had a request from the federal government to do it. And so 'Alligator Alcatraz' it is, and you will see it be done. It will be a force multiplier. It will help DHS [Department of Homeland Security], it will help our state and local law enforcement with relieving some burden on resources."

Asked by reporters about the environmental concerns, DeSantis said, "It will have zero impact."

"This is an airport that's already there. Clearly, from a security perspective, if someone escapes, you know, there are a lot of alligators you're going to have to contend with. No one's going anywhere once you do that. It's a safe and secure as can be," the governor said.

DeSantis said no permanent structures or infrastructure will be built as part of the Everglades project.

"It's all temporary. We set it up. We break it down. This isn't the first rodeo. This thing has been used a bunch of times over many, many years," said DeSantis, adding that his administration has invested billions of dollars in Everglade restoration.

DeSantis said that he believes some groups opposed to the project are "trying to use the Everglades as a pretext just for the fact that they oppose immigration enforcement."

"Let's be clear, that's where you are on the far left now. They don't want the laws enforced at all."

Hartmann said Uthmeier announced the plan without ever consulting Friends of the Everglades.

"It was a surprise for everyone, and it's a fast-moving one. We're sort of just as blindsided by this news as the rest of the world is at this point," Hartmann said.

Hartmann said her group's new fight to protect the Everglades comes 55 years after it led an effort to stop the state from developing a large commercial airport on the same land proposed for the migrant detention center.

"Our overwhelming opinion is that it was a damaging idea back then, and we firmly believe that it remains a dangerous idea now," Hartmann said.