DeSantis rejects ‘Alligator Alcatraz' concerns, says detention center poses ‘zero' threat to Everglades
TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday rejected environmental criticism of a proposed immigration detention center in the Everglades dubbed 'Alligator Alcatraz.'
'There's zero environmental,' DeSantis said during a press conference in Tampa. 'You're talking about the guy who plowed how much money into Everglades restoration?'
Details: Environmental groups and Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava have raised environmental concerns about the detention center being built at a 10,500-foot air strip west of Miami owned by the county.
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But DeSantis labeled the county's response as 'more posturing.' He insisted the facility will be temporary and said the state, which has offered to buy the property, eventually would let the Everglades 'grow over' the site.
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ALVAREZ: You're right to say that coming into this administration, Trump officials repeatedly said their plans were to target people with criminal records. That is a hard thing to do. It requires a lot of legwork, and their numbers in terms of arrests were relatively low compared to where they wanted to be. The White House wants to meet at least 3,000 arrests a day, and you just cannot do that if you are only going after people with criminal records. Now we've seen that aperture widen to include anyone who's in the United States illegally. The administration's perspective on this is that these are individuals who crossed the border unlawfully, therefore they are eligible for deportation. But there has been consternation even among the president's allies about who exactly they're going after. In fact, there was recently a letter from Republican lawmakers to the administration asking for a breakdown of who they were arresting. 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What we are seeing currently is the Trump administration trying to solve for existing hurdles in the immigration system for arresting and deporting people in large numbers. ICE only has a limited number of detention beds. They're only funded for an average of 41,500 beds, but they work with local jails. They have community partners to detain people. Currently, there are more than 58,000 people in ICE custody. They are completely over capacity. That means that they have to look for new ways to detain people, and 'Alligator Alcatraz' is an example of that, which is essentially building a facility very quickly to hold up to 5,000 people and using some FEMA funds so that the state can erect this facility. It's called 'Alligator Alcatraz' because it is located in the Everglades, Florida. The idea is that it would be low-cost because they don't have to worry much about security, given that the surroundings are marshes and swamps full of alligators and pythons. So essentially, if one were to escape, they wouldn't make it very far. It is perhaps a clue or the beginning of how we might see the administration strike more agreements with consenting states or with private companies or military bases to house detainees. The White House imposed a goal of arresting 3,000 people a day. Well, there comes the next question of where do you put them, especially if you've maxed out ICE detention beds. Now we're holding more than 58,000 people and deportations can't keep up. And so there comes the Supreme Court decision of allowing the administration to deport people to other countries. You can start to see how the puzzle pieces are slowly coming together for the administration as they try to execute on this lofty campaign promise. WOLF: You used two interesting words there – clues and puzzle pieces. Do you feel like we have a grasp of everything that the Trump administration is doing right now on the immigration and deportation front? ALVAREZ: They've had four years to think about this. Stephen Miller (who is White House deputy chief of staff) knows the immigration system, there's no question about that, and is the architect when it comes to many of these policies. I would say that over the last six months the administration has been quietly doing a lot behind the scenes that the average person was probably not paying attention to. It may have come in the form of regulations, or it may have come in the form of policy guidance, or diplomatic talks that are happening with countries to eventually take other nationalities. What's been interesting about this particular moment is that everything that they were quietly working on is starting to come to light. The X factor is: Do they get the billions and billions of dollars from the massive package that's working its way through Congress? Because if they do that, it will be a game-changer for them, and it will eliminate so many resource issues, and we could really see this plan take off.
