Miccosukee Tribe Seeks Court Role in Bid to Shut Everglades ICE Camp

The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida has asked a federal court to let it join an environmental and civil-rights lawsuit seeking to close the “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention facility, which the state opened on 1 July inside the Everglades’ Big Cypress National Preserve. The motion to intervene, filed on 15 July, argues that the tent-and-trailer compound threatens tribal villages, sacred sites and wetlands and was erected without the studies required under federal environmental and historic-preservation laws. Alligator Alcatraz, erected after Florida seized the former Dade-Collier Training and Transitional Airport, currently holds about 900 migrants, according to lawmakers who toured the camp last weekend. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz described detainees “packed into cages” with 32 people per enclosure and limited sanitation facilities, intensifying pressure on state and federal officials to justify the site’s continued operation. The tribe joins Friends of the Everglades, Earthjustice and the Center for Biological Diversity, which sued in late June. Named defendants include Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief Todd Lyons, Florida Division of Emergency Management director Kevin Guthrie and Miami-Dade County. Tribal chairman Talbert Cypress said the move is necessary to protect “traditional lands” and compel authorities to set a closure date for the facility.