Protesters Line Streets To Protest Florida’s New “Alligator Alcatraz”

Not everybody is happy with Florida’s new “Alligator Alcatraz.”

As the WLT Report previously reported, the state of Florida is constructing an immigration detention center in the alligator-infested Everglades.

The news of the new detention center has boosted DeSantis’ support among Republicans in the Sunshine State, but has also been met with protests by liberals.

Take a look:

Liberals protest new Alligator Alcatraz facility.

Notice how they’re all standing behind the line? In Florida you can run over someone who’s blocking your vehicle 🤣

pic.twitter.com/jT7if9eeAI

— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) June 28, 2025

AP provided more details on who participated in the protests:

A coalition of groups, ranging from environmental activists to Native Americans advocating for their ancestral homelands, converged outside an airstrip in the Florida Everglades Saturday to protest the imminent construction of an immigrant detention center.

Hundreds of protesters lined part of U.S. Highway 41 that slices through the marshy Everglades — also known as Tamiami Trail — as dump trucks hauling materials lumbered into the airfield. Cars passing by honked in support as protesters waved signs calling for the protection of the expansive preserve that is home to a few Native tribes and several endangered animal species.

Christopher McVoy, an ecologist, said he saw a steady stream of trucks entering the site while he protested for hours. Environmental degradation was a big reason why he came out Saturday. But as a South Florida city commissioner, he said concerns over immigration raids in his city also fueled his opposition.

“People I know are in tears, and I wasn’t far from it,” he said.

Florida officials have forged ahead over the past week in constructing the compound dubbed as “Alligator Alcatraz” within the Everglades’ humid swamplands.

Governor Ron DeSantis recently visited the site where the detention center is being constructed.

Watch here:

Florida is stepping up to help increase deportations and fulfill President Trump's mandate to enforce immigration law.
Alligator Alcatraz is a secure facility in Florida that will stage criminal illegal aliens for efficient mass deportation. I gave @SteveDoocy a tour this… pic.twitter.com/jS6xK1u7Pm

— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) June 27, 2025

BBC shared these details on the construction of “Alligator Alcatraz”:

The facility, in the middle of a Miami swamp, was proposed by state lawmakers to support US President Donald Trump’s deportation agenda.

“You don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter. If people get out, there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons,” explains the state’s attorney general, James Uthmeier, a Republican, in a video set to rock music and posted on social media.

The new detention centre is being built on the site of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, about 43 miles (70km) from central Miami, in the middle of the Everglades, an ecologically important subtropical wetland.

The airfield where the detention centre will be based is mainly a pilot training runway surrounded by vast swamps.
In the stifling summer heat rife with mosquitoes, we managed to advance only a few metres into the compound when, as expected, a guard in a lorry blocked our way.

What’s your view on that?