AP
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A coalition of groups, ranging from environmental activists to the Amerindians, defending their ancestral homeland, converged outside an landing trail in the Florida Everglades on Saturday to protest the imminent construction of an immigrant detention center.
Hundreds of demonstrators bordered part of the US Highway 41 which crosses the swamps – also known as Tamiami Trail – while rolling trucks transported materials in the aerodrome. The cars passing by Klaxon in support while the demonstrators made a sign of signaling of the signs calling for the protection of the vast reserve which houses some native tribes and several endangered animal species.
Christopher McVoy, an ecologist, said he saw a constant flow of trucks on the site while he protested for hours. Environmental deterioration was a great reason why it was released on Saturday. But as a commissioner of the city of southern Florida, he said that the concerns about immigration raids in his city also fueled his opposition.
“The people I know are in tears and I was not far from it,” he said.
Florida officials took front of last week by building the compound baptized “Alligator Alcatraz” in the damp swamps of the Everglades.
The government has accelerated the project under the emergency powers of an executive decree issued by Governor Ron Desantis who approaches what he considers an illegal immigration crisis. This ordinance allows the State to bypass certain purchasing laws and that is why construction continued despite the objections of the mayor of the county of Miami-Dade, Daniella Levine Cava and local activists.
The installation will have temporary structures such as heavy tents and trailers to house detained immigrants. The State estimates that in early July, it will have 5,000 immigration detention beds in operation.
The supporters of the compound noted its location in the wetlands of Florida – swarming with massive reptiles like invasive Burmese alligators and pythons – make it a Ideal place for immigration detention.
“Obviously, from the point of view of security, if someone escapes, you know, there are many alligators,” said Desantis on Wednesday. “No one is going anywhere.”
Under Desantis, Florida made a Aggressive dust for the application of immigration and supported the federal government Broader repression of illegal immigration. The American Department of Internal Security supported “Alligator Alcatraz”, which, according to Kristi Noem, will be partially funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
But Amerindian leaders of the region saw the construction as an encroachment on their sacred landscapes, which caused the demonstration on Saturday. In Big Cypress National Preserte, where the landing trail is located, 15 traditional miccosukee and Seminole villages, as well as ceremony and burial land and other gathering sites, remain.
Others have raised human rights concerns about what they condemn as the inhuman housing of immigrants. The concerns about environmental impacts have also been at the forefront, as groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity and the Friends of the Everglades has filed a legal action Friday to stop the plans of the detention center.
“Everglades are a vast interconnected system of navigable waterways and wetlands, and what happens in a field can have damaged impact downstream,” said Eve Samples, executive director of the Friends of the Everglades. “It is therefore really important that we have a clear meaning of any impact on wetlands on the site.”
Bryan Griffin, spokesperson for Desantis, said on Friday in response to the dispute that the installation was a “staging operation necessary for mass deportations located at a pre-existing airport which will have no impact on the environment.”
Until the site undergoes a complete environmental examination and public comments, environmental groups say that construction should stop. The rapid establishment of the establishment is “overwhelming evidence” according to which the state and federal agencies hope that it will be “too late” to reverse its actions if they are ordered by a court, said Elise Bennett, a main lawyer of the Center for Biological Diversity working on the case.
The potential environmental risks also bleed in other aspects of the life of the Everglades, including a robust tourism industry where hikers walk on trails and explore the marshes on airports, said that the founder of Floridians public lands for public land, Jessica Namath, who attended the demonstration. To place a detention center for immigration, the region makes visitors not very welcoming and fuels the false idea that space is “in the middle of nowhere,” she said.
“Everyone here sees the exhaust vapors, sees the oil sklics on the road, you know, they hear sound and sound pollution. You can imagine what he looks like at night, and we are in an international area in the dark sky,” said Namath. “It’s very frustrating because, once again, there is such disconnection for politicians.”
