Buried deep in the Florida Everglades, the state built a sprawling immigration detention center—nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz”—without conducting a federally required environmental review. Now, despite a federal judge’s ruling that this remote facility violates environmental law, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has approved a staggering $608 million reimbursement for its construction and operations.

This isn’t just bureaucratic overreach—it’s a moral failure.

The Everglades are one of the most ecologically sensitive regions in the country, home to endangered species, fragile wetlands, and Indigenous lands. Turning it into a militarized detention zone without proper review is reckless, short-sighted, and potentially irreversible. Environmental groups sued for this very reason—and they won. Yet an appeals court put the ruling on pause simply because federal dollars hadn’t yet been disbursed. Now they’re about to be.

Beyond the environmental destruction, the facility itself raises serious human rights concerns. Isolating people in the middle of the swamp, far from legal support and family, only deepens the cruelty of an already broken immigration system. This isn’t a solution—it’s a stain on our values.

We demand that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS):

• Withhold all federal reimbursement until a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is completed and made public
• Cease operations at the Alligator Alcatraz facility and redirect funding toward humane, community-based alternatives to detention
• If this facility is allowed to stay open—and worse, be federally reimbursed—it will set a dangerous precedent: that states can ignore environmental law and human dignity as long as they wait for the check to clear.

Let’s stop this now. No more funds. No more detentions. No more damage.

Sign to demand accountability, justice, and environmental protection.