The administration of Trump and the Governor of Florida have published in recent events a rapidly built detention installation for workers without documentation arrested in federal lands in Florida Everglades, but opponents on June 27 filed an emergency motion to stop the continued use and development of the place that they say will cause irreparable damage to environmental environment.
The installation, called by the Administration as “Caimà Alcatraz”, is located about 37 miles west of Miami at the site of the old Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, which was used for government formation until it closed in the late 1960’s, leaving a track in its place.
The Governor of Florida, Ron Desantis (R), has defended the new installation, saying in the media in an informative session of July 1 that it was built in eight days, it will be able to capacity for more than 3,000 occupants and has more than 200 security cameras, 28,000 feet more of wire and 400 security staff. The detainees will be housed in the trailers of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the “Temporary Facilities of the Soft Face”, told CNN a US Department of National Safety Officer in CNN.
Disantis said that the construction of the installation and operation of one year is expected to have Florida estimated $ 450 million, but said that the state would request a FEMA refund. “
The ICE had more than 56,000 people in arrest in mid -June, Bloomberg said in a federal data analysis, but the agency is only funded to have about 41,500.
Qualified emergency qualified
Kevin Guthrie, head of the Florida Emergency Management Division, said that the contractors hired so far were already precalmed to work in emergency services. State Disantees and officials did not go through state tender requirements and environmental review quoting a 2023 Emergency Order that stated in response to Cuban and Haitian migrants arriving by boat in the keys of Florida. Since then, the governor has expanded this immigration emergency order several times.
Among the contractors of the identified site is SLSCO LTD., a Galveston construction firm, based in Texas, which built parts of the border wall of the first Trump administration in three states and has recently been offering new barrier contracts. According to the Florida Government website, collected by Miami Herald, SLSCO has been awarded other Florida works with a value of up to $ 17.7 million. The company did not respond to ENR through the time of stories publications on July 8.
Other companies named as winning contracts include Garner Environmental Services, a disaster release company; Deployed resources, a logistics company; CDR Maguire, provider of health services; Gardaworld Safety Contractor and a portable toilet provider. Also, the generators and lifts rented by contractors of the Sunbelt Rental rental company were visible at the press conference on July 1. Guthrie said that as it was built, the installation can support a hurricane in category 2 and could be quickly evacuated in the event of a storm. Desantis told journalists that the installation would not expand beyond the original airport footprint, but the state plans a second detention center in Camp Blanding, a Florida National Guard base near Jacksonville. GARDAWORLD was previously hired to build a Chicago -like shelter before the State blocks it.
Mount challenges
In the meantime, in a lawsuit now in the Federal District Court of Miami, Friends of the Everglades, represented by Earthjustice and the Center of Biological Diversity, demand national security, American immigration and custom customs compliance (ICE), the Florida Emergency Management Agency and the County of Miami-Dade.
Groups say that state officials gathered the place without environmental reviews or opportunities for public contributions. “This scheme is not only cruel, but also threatens the Everglades ecosystem that state and federal taxpayers have spent billions to protect,” said Eve Samples, executive director of Everglades friends in a statement, including the extensive work of the United States Army Engineers. The opponents have also played the protection capacity of the installation hurricanes.
The United States Department of Justice said in a response from June 30 that demand is not “mature” for its review and that it is “an indefinite waterproof and does not specify the acts that the county should do to fulfill”. In Miami-Dade’s response to the request for the temporary containment order, the county prosecutor, Geraldine Bonzon-Keenan, said that the Governor Desantis “is expressly authorized to” use state and local resources “as reasonably necessary to deal with the emergency.”
The Miccosukee Indians tribe is opposed to the proposed installation, citing the impacts on the sensitive areas and their communities, said Talbert Cypress, the President of the Talbert Cypress tribe. “We have contacted the administrations of Desantis and Trump to determine a way to go,” he said.
