President Donald Trump took a tour today (July 1) at the temporary migrant detention center being referred to as Alligator Alcatraz in the Florida Everglades.
The detention center is being built in the Big Cypress National Preserve, which is about 44 miles southeast of Naples. Today was considered the official opening of the detention center.
Trump saw the progress of converting an airstrip and training base in the Everglades into an overflow detention site. Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office announced recently the state will be using emergency powers to seize the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport away from Miami-Dade County.
DeSantis and Congressman Byron Donalds were among the officials on the tour with Trump, who also participated in a roundtable discussion about immigration.
Protestors, led by environmental groups and Native Americans who want to protect their ancestorial lands, came out it force on Tuesday. There were also Trump supporters at the entrance to the facility.
Video: What protestors were saying at Alligator Alcatraz
Photos: More coverage of today’s visit by President Trump to Alligator Alcatraz
Trump tour of Alligator Alcatraz ends
US Senate candidate joins protestors at Alligator Alcatraz
United States Senate candidate Josh Weil joined the protesters in opposition of Alligator Alcatraz on Tuesday.
Weil said that he brought a team of people out to support the protesters and keep them safe.
“These people drove hours, camped out overnight to defend human rights, to stand up for our Constitution, for our environment. It’s incredibly important that we’re here,” Weil said.
Weil said that President Trump’s immigration policies are “cruel and inhumane,” in consideration of the many Floridians who are already struggling economically.Weil said that the data that has “continuously poured out about border crossings” is nonsensical.
“I’m going to need someone to explain it to me like a child on how you get such great, accurate data of people who are coming across illegally,” Weil said.
Weil said the Trump administration is responding to a “fabricated crisis” in the “most cruel and inhumane way possible, rounding up anyone who’s a tad darker in skin complexion than I am, completely violating any of their constitutional rights, their due process and locking them up in internment camps and detention centers.”
Weil said it doesn’t make sense to him that the country allows asylum seekers from countries deemed “dangerous,” and yet, the government is deporting people who “are here legally, people who have birthright citizenship, people who are here under protected status from the country they came from.”
Weil said that he measures his personal policies by determining whether he would want his own children to live amongst certain circumstances.
“My children deserve a better America than the one we’re giving them now, which means your children deserve a better America than the one we’re giving them now,” Weil said.
− Tayeba Hussein
Protestor brings up constitutional issues at Alligator Alcatraz
Protester James Elmore, an antifa activist and U.S. army veteran, said that part of his military service included taking an oath to defend the constitution, which was an oath that “had no expiration date.”
“Right now, Trump and his regime are blatantly violating the constitution,” Elmore said.“That’s literally a concentration camp. There’s no other way to define it, okay? It’s a concentration camp and people will die in there,” Elmore said of Alligator Alcatraz.
Elmore said he’s “pissed off” about President Trump’s immigration policies and that’s why he is protesting.
“The country shouldn’t be this way. We should have rational adults leading things, but instead, we got people preaching to emotion and hate points,” Elmore said.
− Tayeba Hussein
Standing up for Trump: Demonstrators favor president’s immigration stance
Chaunce O’Connor, 42 from Miami-Dade, showed up at the detention center on an electric scooter carrying a large flag that read “Trump Won – Save America.” He wore a blue baseball hat with the words Trump Fan and Sexy.
O’Connor said he was born in Ireland and immigrated to the U.S. with his parents as a child. They came here, legally, he said. And that’s what O’Connor would like to see happen with any other immigrants.
At least twice, O’Connor got into a shouting match with a group of people on the other side of the detention center roadway entrance who chanted against Trump, against ICE an against the detention center. He yelled, “If you hate our country, go to another country;” We are not black and brown, we are red, white and blue;” “USA USA USA.”
While 75 to 100 protestors chanted “Hey Hey Ho Ho Donald Trump has got to go; “No KKK No Fascist USA.”
O’Connor said he was yelling at the anti-Trump, anti-detention center protestors because they are against Trump and the police.
“They don’t like the police. They are saying they hate the USA, why are they here,” he said.
A registered Democrat at 18, O’Connor said he now a Republican. He said he worked with Green Peace and was a member of PETA. He said he is a friend to the environments and wants the detention center built right and with all the right permits and believes it will be.
Nearby, 82-year-old Bob Kunst, born and still living in Miami-Dade, stood with his signs: “We love ‘Daddy’ Trump and “Castrate terrorists rioters. Report ‘illegals.’ ” Wearing a red baseball hat with the words “Trump was right about everything,” and a T-shirt that read “Trump vs. Tramp.”
Kunst said he travels all over Florida with his signs and has been to more than 400 protests in 8 years. He says he is a registered Democrat but only has stayed in the party only because it gets him more media attention.
“I’m thoroughly fed up with the Democratic Party,” he said.
About Trump’s immigration policies, Kunst said, “Trump is onto something, and it’s not just the U.S. Immigration is an issue all over the world.” He said he believes the rest of the world is watching to see what Trump does and what works.
About the detention center in The Everglades, Kunst said, “I like it. It’s a secure place and anyone that tries to escape gets eaten by an alligator. They live in air conditioning, get three meals a day and they figure out who the bad guys are. And they aren’t out in the population.”
− Kyle Foster
Video: Alligator Alcatraz tour turns into ‘Blame Biden’ opportunity
Video: Trump talk about Alligator Alcatraz
Alligator Alcatraz entrance: Like a ‘high school cruising strip’
Hundreds of cars lined the highway as protestors held up signs and shouted over bull horns.
By midday the highway had slowed to a crawl, and delivery trucks pulled over along Tamiami Trail several miles west of the prison entrance.
The protestors spilled out onto the highway at times, and media from dozens of outlets lined the side of the road.
The prison entrance took on a high school cruising strip vibe as the president was scheduled to leave the area.
Protesters held up signs and marched along her highway from a nearby indigenous camp.Camps were set up along the highway, and volunteers were handing out waters to protesters.
One large group of protesters left the prison entrance at 12:45 p.m. as rains started to move into the area.
− Chad Gillis
Video: Big day for protestors at Alligator Alcatraz
Byron Donalds: What he said at Alligator Alcatraz
After the tour, Trump was seated at the center of three tables arranged in a U in a temporary building, and was flanked by DeSantis and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noemi. Among those invited to other tables was U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds of Naples, who has received Trump’s support to be the next governor instead of expected foe and wife of DeSantis, Casey. Politicians took turns giving speeches, all praising Trump and most bashing former President Joe Biden.
“Governor, I really appreciate you and commend you for your leadership, taking swift decisive action to building this facility,” Donalds said, after first saluting the president. “Our sheriffs are out there every single day. They are arresting these criminal aliens in our streets, and they’re seeing some backlog in their jails so this facility primarily goes to address that backlog.”
− Phil Fernandez
Video: Pro-Trump voices heard at Alligator Alcatraz
Video: It’s ‘more than an environmental issue’
Protestor: Alligator Alcatraz has become ‘negative symbol’
Protester Lupita Vasquez, an Immokalee resident, said that the alligator has become a negative symbol due to the term “Alligator Alcatraz.”
“The people that have been hunted down, that we’ve seen in escalation on these raids, have become a pawn. And the alligator has also become a pawn to be used as terror, to be criminalized,” Vasquez said to the crowd of protesters.
Vasquez said that none of the protesters present today want violence or chaos, but they’re being forced into silence which “feels disgusting.”
Vasquez also said that rumors have been circulating through the community in regard to 1,000 detainees allegedly being flown in overnight “to be placed there for the show that is going to be today on that jetport.”
Vasquez said that the protesting tribal youth are leading with their “gut instinct” and making their voices, and the voices of others, heard.
“We move into change, we impact change when we are uncomfortable, and the Glades make us very uncomfortable. The mosquitoes, the heat. But after a while, it becomes something we can handle. It becomes something we can learn to navigate with, connect with, deal with, appreciate and even have gratitude for,” Vasquez said.
− Tayeba Hussein
Media coverage covers wide spectrum
Media coverage ranged from international Spanish-speaking outlets to Christopher Columbus High School journalism students. Some people wore full face masks and seemed to patrol the crowed, often videoing the event. Someone rented a van with an electric sign that was anti-Trump and pro-immigration. One man rode up and down Tamiami Trail on an electric scooter as though he were part of a circus.
− Chad Gillis
Protestor: This is ‘unjustified’
Protester Luna Reyes, and Immokalee resident and volunteer for Unidos Immokaleesaid that over the last few weeks, the local indigenous community has noticed a lack of discourse in regard to how environmental issues and indigenous rights go hand in hand.
“One can’t be spoken on without the other being spoken on,” Reyes said.
Reyes said there are plenty of ongoing discussions about the impact that Alligator Alcatraz will have on sewage systems, but the detainment center’s impact extends far beyond.
“This is something that not only is going to initially and directly the detainees that are being sent there, but it’s also going to eventually start to affect the ecosystem,” Reyes said.
Reyes said that it’s unjustified that the government would establish their presence in the Everglades “without any input from the people that live here.”
“These are their lands. This is the native land, the sacred land. Everything that they’ve learned has been on this land,” he said.
Protester Dakota Osceola, member of Seminole Tribe of Florida, said that Alligator Alcatraz “is an attack on indigenous people.”
“This isn’t just an environmental issue. This is a human issue. This is a human trafficking issue, this is a genocide, this is an attack on the environment, you name it,” Osceola said.The audacity in coming to our home and thinking they can do something like this, when we are who we are and we have the reputation that we have, that is, ‘no, we don’t surrender.”
She continued.
“We didn’t sign a treaty, we didn’t sign off on this, none of my people think it’s okay.The Seminole and Miccosukee youth are here right now to say this is messed up. We can’t let this happen. Donald Trump, he’s not our president,” Osceola said.
− Tayeba Hussein
Protestors delivering messages with signs
Protestors have gathered and made their way to the entrance and are chanting: “This is what democracy looks like.” Among the signs:
− Kyle Foster
Does Alligator Alcatraz have air conditioning?
According to a sign set up in a tent inside Alligator Alcatraz, the facility has “24/7 A/C.”
Other information included on the sign:
Our reporter on the ground outside Alligator Alcatraz
Trump: Camp guarded by ‘a lot of cops in the form of alligators’
After landing near the camp, Trump stood next to his limo, with DeSantis and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noemi at his side. The president said more of these camps could be created in the Everglades and elsewhere, serving as model of what needs to be done with detained immigrants.
“It can be,” Trump said. “You don’t always have land so beautiful and so secure, and lot of bodyguards and a lot of cops in the form of alligators that you don’t have to pay them so much.”
− Phil Fernandez
Hundreds of media, protestors outside Alligator Alcatraz
Hundreds of media and dozens of protestors linger at this otherwise lonely stretch of Tamiami Trail in the historic Everglades as President Trump arrived at Alligator Alcatraz.
Trump advocates and protesters crowded the highway as the smell of cypress lingered in the air. The smoke was from a nearby indigenous camp, where people have struggled to exist for centuries.
Alligator Alcatraz opened July 1 at the old Jetport site in the Big Cypress National Preserve.Media from across the nation were blanketing this remote stretch of highway near the Collier County border.
Traffic slowed to a stop every few minutes as the media world waited for President Trump to arrive.
− Chad Gillis
Delivery trucks being turned away at Alligator Alcatraz
At the the entrance to the site along Tamiami Trail, Collier County Sheriff’s Office deputies and Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission Officers have been turning away delivery and construction trucks, telling them they can’t get in now, to park and wait.Media still outnumber a a handful of Trump supporters and 15 to 20 protesters opposed to the detention center.One man was walking along the road with a sign displaying the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution Among others at the scene:
− Kyle Foster
Protestors gather outside of Alligator Alcatraz
Protester Holden Manning was one of the many protesters who are at Alligator Alcatraz this morning said:
“I don’t think there’s any room for fascism in the United States of America. Where’s the waste of 5000 people going to go? It’s going to go into the waterways that directly impact our communities. This is something that everybody needs to worry about.”
Protesters and Trump supporters started yelling at each other, “You’ve lost your humanity, one,” shouted at a Trump supporter.
Protestors are showing up in higher numbers and some Trump supporters have joined the scene that could be described as a media circus.
− Tayeba Hussein and Chad Gillis
Trump talks about Alligator Alcatraz in advance of visit
After emerging from the White House at 7:57 a.m., he spoke briefly about his Everglades detention camp before starting on his trip to Florida.
“We’re going out to Alligator Alcatraz,” Trump said, mentioning Gov. DeSantis. “It should be very exciting and very good. Worked very hard on it with Ron and everybody, and I think it’s going to be great.”
− Phil Fernandez
Where is Ochopee, Florida, site of Alligator Acatraz detention center?
Ochopee is an unincorporated comunity in Collier County. It is part of the Naples–Marco Island Metropolitan Statistical Area.
It is located to the east of the intersection of US 41, also known as Tamiami Trail and and State Road 29.
Ochopee is about 36 miles northeast of Naples and about 75 miles southwest of Miami.
− Kim Luciani
Trump: Prisoners will be trained how to “run away from an alligator”
The concept of the detention camp is that the gators should serve as a deterrent, Trump told the press pool covering the day’s activities on the South Lawn of the White House before departing this morning: “That’s the concept. This is not a nice business.
“The snakes are fast, but alligators, we’re going to teach them how to run away from an alligator. OK? If they escape prison, how to run away. Don’t run in a straight line. Look like this,” the gesturing president said. “And you know what? Your chances go up about 1%. Not a good thing.”
− Phil Fernandez
Alligator Alcatraz entrance swarming with media in advance of Trump visit
Traffic along the stretch of Tamiami Trail near the entrance to Alligator Alcatraz had ground to a halt around 8:30 this morning, July 1, as media gathered in advance of Trump’s visit.
Dozens of media outlets have swarmed the spot smack in the middle of the Everglades, some in broadcast trucks, antennas raised.
About 100 police officers were staged at the nearby Oasis visitor center about two miles away.
Some protesters were displaying “no prison,” anti-Alligator Alcatraz signs. About 20 or so are there but far outnumbered by media.
− Chad Gillis
Trump readying to depart for Florida
Marine One touched down at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland at 8:11 a.m., with President Trump exiting it four minutes later, according to the press pool covering the day’s activities.
Wearing a Red Gulf of America hat and no tie, at 8:16 a.m., he boarded Air Force One, where long-time Trump advisor Corey Lewandowski was among those waiting on the smaller version of the planes that serve the president.
− Phil Fernandez
President Trump meets with reporters ahead of departure for Alligator Alcatraz
What time will President Trump arrive at Alligator Alcatraz?
The President was expected to leave the White House at 7:25 a.m. this morning, Tuesday July 1 and arrive at the detention center site in time for a guided walking tour at 10 a.m.
The schedule released by the White House is:
Ready for departure to Alligator Alcatraz
This is from Margo Martin, special assistant to the president and communications advisor:
Roundtable discussion planned at Alligator Alcatraz
When President Donald Trump arrives today (July 1) to Alligator Alcatraz he is scheduled to participate in a roundtable discussion about immigration with the following officials:
What is Alligator Alcatraz?
“Alligator Alcatraz” is the nickname for a temporary immigrant detention center in Big Cypress National Preserve, near the Florida Everglades.
The site is what Florida State Attorney General James Uthmeier called the “virtually abandoned” Miami-Dade Collier Training and Transition Airport, a 39-square-mile airport facility with a 10,500-foot runway.
It will have 5,000 beds, Uthmeier said. He also said the facility is intended to be temporary.
Where is Alligator Alcatraz located? Map of remote Florida immigrant detention center
The former airstrip and training base in the Big Cypress National Preserve is located in South Florida, off U.S. 41, also known as Tamiami Trail.
The facility is in Ochopee, just north of Everglades National Park, about 48 miles east of Naples, 45 miles west of Miami International Airport, and 40 air miles southwest of Boca Raton.
The facility was constructed in 1968 and originally known as the Everglades Jetport or Big Cypress Swamp Jetport, according to the National Park Service. It was intended to be the largest airport in the world, with six runways and a 1,000-foot-wide corridor linking it to both coasts.
Alligator Alcatraz merch
There’s even Alligator Alcatraz merchandise for sale online.
The Florida GOP announced gator-themed T-shirts, hats and can koozies in a fundraising notice sent to supporters, according to Scripps reporter Forrest Saunders. The items are prominently featured at the party’s online store.
“The feds have greenlit Alligator Alcatraz — Florida’s gator-guarded, python-patrolled prison for illegal aliens who thought they could game the system,” the message read. “Surrounded by miles of swamp and bloodthirsty wildlife, this ain’t no vacation spot. It’s a one-way ticket to regret for criminals who’ll wish they’d self-deported.”
Group has filed lawsuit to stop Alligator Alcatraz
On June 27, Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit against the Florida Division of Emergency Management, the Department of Homeland Security and ICE to “halt the unlawful construction of a prison in the heart of the Everglades.”
Later on June 27, the groups filed an expedited motion for temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to maintain the status quo while the legal issues are resolved.
Contributing: Cheryl McCloud, C. A. Bridges, USA TODAY Network-Florida
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Live updates: President Trump’s Alligator Alcatraz tour in Ochopee, Florida is complete
Reporting by Mark H. Bickel, Kim Luciani, Tayeba Hussein, J. Kyle Foster, Chad Gillis and Phil Fernandez, Naples Daily News / Naples Daily News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
