Florida tribe fights new 'Alligator Alcatraz' migrant facility near Everglades homes [View all]

Source: ABC News

July 1, 2025, 7:51 PM


A Florida Native American leader spoke out against a new migrant detention facility in the Florida Everglades, nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz," raising environmental and safety concerns for local tribal communities. President Trump, visiting the site Tuesday, said the facility will hold "some of the most menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet."

The detention center, built on a remote airstrip in the Everglades, can hold up to 5,000 migrants in tents and trailers. Talbert Cypress, chairman of the Miccosukee Business Council, said some tribal villages are located within 900 feet of the facility's entrance. "This proposed facility is surrounded on all sides by the Big Cypress National Preserve, and the tribe has been at home in the Big Cypress for centuries," Cypress told ABC News.

Cypress pointed to the lack of environmental studies on what creating the detention center could mean for the local ecosystem. "There's been no environmental impact study done. The environmental impact study that was done back in 1974 pretty much suggested that putting any kind of airship in the area was going to have significant impacts on the Everglades," he said.

The facility's closeness to traditional Native camps, where Miccosukee and Seminole members live and teach both American and Native education, has raised more concerns. "We're concerned about safety... CBP, also just in general, all the traffic that's going to be coming through there, and flights coming in and out," Cypress said.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/florida-tribe-fights-new-alligator-alcatraz-migrant-facility/story?id=123393299