Amelia Schafer
ICT
RAPID CITY, South Dakota – A new proposed immigration detention center nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz” has led to outrages amongst Indigenous people and allies in Florida.
“It hurts,” said Cheyenne Kippenberger, citizen of the Seminole Tribe of Florida and former Miss Indian World 2019-2021. “It hurts because that’s our home.”
The proposed detention center deep within the Florida Everglades would threaten tribal sovereignty, leaders said, and is a great risk to tribes that have called the Everglades home since time immemorial.
“The Everglades is our home, and it has been our home for generations, long before it was a National Preserve, long before Florida ever even existed,” Kippenberger said. “It is a fragile, beautiful, essential ecosystem that has provided our people with sustenance and safety.”
Kippenberger, who resides on the Hollywood Reservation 45 miles from the Big Cypress Preserve, now heads CK Consulting, which focuses on enhancing the narrative of Indigenous people in diplomacy, environmental stewardship and historical competency.
In mid-June, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and Gov. Ron DeSantis, Republican, evoked emergency powers to fast track the site’s construction, aiming for it to open in early July. Crews have brought in tents, portable toilets and constructional materials to expedite the process.
President Donald J. Trump is expected to visit the site on Tuesday, July 1.
Uthmeier announced the project in a June 19 post on X, where he called the site “Alligator Alcatraz.” He said the site could host up to 1,000 undocumented immigrants.
“If people get out, there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons,” Uthmeier said in the post.
DeSantis’ press office did not respond to requests for comment.
The proposed detention center is immediately adjacent to Tamiami Trail, which hosts 19 traditional Miccosukee and Seminole villages and the Congressionally-authorized Miccosukee Reserved Area and Miccosukee Water Conservation Area.
“Some are within 100 feet of the proposed facilities entrance,” Kippenberger said.
About an hour and a half west from Miami, Florida, the Big Cypress National Preserve is a relatively rural site but far from uninhabited and isolated as Uthmeier suggested in his post on X.
The Seminole and Miccosukee tribes also have guaranteed rights to hunt, fish, gather medicines and host traditional ceremonies within the site – something that could be infringed upon by the project.
“That’s a rightful cause for concern for our people’s literal safety,” Kippenberger said. “We have tribal members that like to hunt openly. We have tribal members that are out there on their own boats, fishing and hunting and all these things. And you know, we’re seeing tribal communities being affected by these facilities, by these roundups, and so we have a right to be concerned for our people with this facility being located so closely to the families that still occupy these lands, the Big Cypress lands.”
Additionally, the Miccosukee Indian Tribe of Florida Reservation and Seminole Nation of Florida’s Big Cypress Reservation both border the Big Cypress National Preserve where the detention center is posed to be built.
“Rather than Miccosukee homelands being an uninhabited wasteland for alligators and pythons, as some have suggested, the Big Cypress is the tribe’s traditional homelands,” said Talbert Cypress, chairman of the Miccosukee Tribe in a Facebook post.
For the Seminole Tribe of Florida, the Seminole Tribe of Oklahoma and the Miccosukee Tribe the Everglades are sacred. Traditional cultural, religious and recreational activities depend on a healthy Everglades.
The Everglades were also monumental in protecting the Seminole people from forced removal. After the Seminole Tribe of Oklahoma was forcibly removed from their homelands and taken to Oklahoma, members of what would become the Miccosukee and Seminole tribe of Florida hid in the Everglades using their intimate knowledge of the land to navigate the swampy region.
The Seminole and Miccosukee tribes have spent decades fighting for the preservation of the Big Cypress National Preserve.
Around 50 years ago, the site that’s now set to become “Alligator Alcatraz” was set to become the world’s largest airport. Due to protesting and pushback from activists including the famous Marjory Stoneman Douglas, this never happened. Instead, the site remained a concrete pad in the swamps.
The new fast-tracked deportation center will be built on that concrete pad, but not without push back.
“The Chief of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma joins the call in solidarity with the Miccosukee and Florida Seminole to reject any development – such as the proposed detention center – that threaten the cultural integrity, environmental stability, and sovereign rights of Indigenous nations,” said Lewis Johnson, principal chief of the Seminole Tribe of Oklahoma.
Protests against construction continued throughout the weekend after the project was announced, with Miccosukee elders organizing across the street of the facility to show their opposition.
Two nonprofits, Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit on June 27, alleging the project was greenlit without legally required environmental reviews, public notice and without compliance to federal statutes regarding the Endangered Species Act.
The lawsuit seeks to halt the process until it has undergone environmental review, as required by federal law. As of right now, it’s unclear if any environmental reviews or tribal consultation has occurred.
However, a recent Supreme Court ruling limiting powers of lower courts may prevent the lawsuit’s implementation.
“It’s not just us as people that benefit from (the Everglades),” Kippenberger said. “Look at the Florida panther, there’s protected birds, there’s the bonded bat and the many plants that we’re trying to fight to protect, because they’re Indigenous to Florida. There’s just so much at risk with this project.”
