COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. — A plan to construct a new facility to house undocumented immigrants in the Everglades is apparently moving forward.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced a plan last week to convert the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport into a complex he's calling "Alligator Alcatraz."
On Monday, Uthmeier said during an interview with Benny Johnson, a YouTube host with nearly five million subscribers, that the detention center would be up and running next month.
In a video posted to Uthmeier's X account, the attorney general said he met Sunday with "Border Czar" Tom Hohman.
"As of this morning, the federal government has approved our detention facility plan," Uthmeier told Johnson. "We'll have 5,000 beds by early July, a couple of facilities, including what I call Alligator Alcatraz."
Uthmeier said Monday that the National Guard will be on site to help run the facility, saying it would be up and running the first week of July.
He said last week that the facility could be operational within 30 to 60 days and house up to 1,000 people.
When he was asked about how the migrants would be housed, the attorney general said there would be some "light infrastructure" described as "heavy-duty tent facilities, trailer facilities."
"We'll detain, deport and get people out of this country," Uthmeier said. "It's a great facility."
Uthmeier maintained that since the site is located in a remote area, "the perimeter is already set by Mother Nature."
"A lot of people thought maybe it was just a joke, but no, we're serious," Uthmeier said.
Uthmeier has not revealed a cost associated with the plan.
WPTV on Monday obtained a letter from the state of Florida to Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to buy the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport for $20 million.
Read the letter below:
Gov. Ron DeSantis' deputy press secretary sent WPTV the following statement on the plan:
"Governor DeSantis has insisted that the state of Florida, under his leadership, will facilitate the federal government in enforcing immigration law. At the governor’s direction, the Florida Division of Emergency Management has drafted and submitted to DHS a plan (the State immigration Enforcement Operations Plan—attached) for Florida to further assist in the detention, processing, and deportation of illegal immigrants. Florida’s DEM has also offered to buy the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport for this purpose. Utilizing this space and/or others around the state, Florida will continue to lead in immigration enforcement."
Last week, WPTV spoke with Eve Samples, the executive director of Friends of the Everglades, who called it a "clueless idea that was off the cuff."
Samples called on the governor to put a stop to the plan immediately.
