Pinellas Rep. Lindsay Cross Slams ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Detention Camp
ST. PETERSBURG — Florida's "Alligator Alcatraz" migrant detention facility began construction this week in the Everglades. This marks another attempt by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to insert himself into federal immigration policy.
The state-led project, spearheaded by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and supported by DeSantis, intends to station 1,000 trailers and heavy‑duty tents on a remote airstrip surrounded by swamps teeming with alligators, pythons, and mosquitoes. Construction crews have already moved in, setting portable restrooms, generators, and solar panels. The state is aiming to open the facility by early July at an estimated cost of $450 million per year.
Representative Lindsay Cross, sharply critical of the initiative, called the project “a disturbing combination of brutality, environmental disregard, and performative politics.” She warned it is “a reckless, hastily planned development initiative in one of our most fragile protected ecosystems.”
Environmental groups, tribal leaders, and Miami‑Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava are raising alarms about the ecological damage and lack of oversight, pointing to the site's location within a protected ecosystem that overlaps the Big Cypress National Preserve.
Republican officials frame the site as an innovative use of natural barriers to curb escape risks, while federal Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem branded it “cost‑effective and innovative” in pursuing deportation mandates. However, critics, including tribal and environmental advocacy groups, detail a legacy of failed development attempts on the site, including the scrapped 1960s Everglades Jetport.
As protests swell and lawsuits loom, tough questions remain over land-use authority, environmental permitting, funding sources, and the legal oversight of a state-run detention system.
