1. United States
2. Fla.
3. Letter

I am writing to express my firm opposition to the construction of the migrant detention facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz” at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Big Cypress National Preserve. This project is not only deeply troubling from a humanitarian standpoint but also represents an egregious violation of tribal sovereignty, environmental integrity, and public trust. 1. Violation of Tribal Rights The site lies on ancestral lands held sacred by the Miccosukee and Seminole peoples. This area contains ceremonial grounds, burial sites, and ecologically rich wetlands that have sustained Indigenous communities for generations. Moving forward with construction without their free, prior, and informed consent disregards their sovereignty and perpetuates a shameful legacy of dispossession and desecration. 2. Irreparable Environmental Damage The Everglades are a national treasure—fragile, essential, and already under immense ecological stress. Establishing a militarized detention complex with thousands of beds, tent structures, generators, and sanitation systems risks irreversible harm to water flows, wildlife habitats, and decades of federally funded restoration efforts. We should be protecting this ecosystem, not building prisons on top of it. 3. Inhumane and Logistically Unsound The remote location, chosen in part for its harsh natural conditions—alligators, pythons, heat, and mosquitos—is being used as a deterrent and natural “fence” to trap human beings. This is both dehumanizing and cruel. Migrants, many fleeing violence and persecution, deserve due process and basic dignity—not incarceration in sweltering trailers in the middle of a swamp. 4. Fiscal Irresponsibility and Lack of Oversight The $450 million annual cost of this facility—built under emergency powers and with minimal legislative transparency—represents an outrageous misuse of state and potentially federal funds. That money could and should be directed toward legal assistance, housing, healthcare, and border policy reform grounded in compassion and pragmatism. This project is an embarrassment to our values and a stain on Florida’s reputation. I urge you to do everything in your power to halt construction, demand accountability from those behind it, and stand in defense of Florida’s land, its people, and its moral compass.