Florida’s largest federally-recognized tribe has come out in opposition of Alligator Alcatraz, the state’s immigration processing center in the Everglades.
In a July 2 statement, Marcellus Osceola Jr., the chairman of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, said the tribe stands with its members who are protesting the facility at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Big Cypress National Preserve.
There are 15 remaining traditional Miccosukee and Seminole villages in Big Cypress, as well as several ceremonial grounds, burial grounds and gathering sites within the preserve.
“Hundreds of members of the Seminole Tribe of Florida have reached out to express their deep concerns about further development of the Everglades Jetport site which they view as sacred land and critical to the Florida Everglades ecosystem,” Osceola said. “Their opposition is based on the need to protect and preserve the Everglades, as well as the Seminole culture and our way of life.”
The Seminoles and Florida’s state government have a special relationship: An agreement known as the “Seminole Compact” allows the tribe, which operates the Hard Rock brand of hotels and casinos, to offer online sports betting statewide and blackjack at its Tampa and Hollywood casinos. In turn, the tribe pays billions to the state.
The Seminole Tribe of Florida now joins the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma in denouncing the temporary immigration processing center, which will hold up to 3,000 detainees.
“These lands are not empty stretches of wilderness, nor are they merely backdrops to policy decisions —they are living, breathing homelands, deeply tied to the cultural, spiritual and historical identity of Miccosukee and Florida Seminole people,” said Lewis J. Johnson, principal chief of Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, in a statement.
Florida officials say the site is necessary for “coping with the emergency” that is federal immigration enforcement, but tribal nations with ancestral ties to Big Cypress warn Alligator Alcatraz will impact the environment where members of the Miccosukee and Seminole Tribe of Florida live, hunt, fish, gather and pray.
The Miccosukee and Seminole tribes of Florida and Oklahoma say they can trace their ancestry back to Big Cypress for thousands of years; they used the area for seasonal hunting grounds. After the majority of Florida’s indigenous people were removed, the remaining were contained on the southernmost extent of their tribal hunting grounds.
“We live here. Our ancestors fought and died here. They are buried here. The Big Cypress is part of us and we are a part of it,” said Talbert Cypress, chair of the Miccosukee Tribe, in 2024 testimony before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Federal Lands.
Alligator Alcatraz is a 20-minute drive from the Miccosukee reservation and less than 100 yards away from one of the Panther Clan’s villages, but the tribe said it was not consulted about the construction of the immigration processing center.
In a statement, Cypress said the tribe will continue to engage with state and federal officials to “chart a path forward.”
“In light of recent efforts to develop a detention facility near Tribal villages, the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida is committed, alongside our Seminole relatives, to protecting Tribal rights in Big Cypress National Preserve,” Cypress said.
Ana Goñi-Lessan, state watchdog reporter for the USA TODAY Network – Florida, can be reached at agonilessan@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Seminole Tribe of Florida joins opposition to ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ in Everglades
Reporting by Ana Goñi-Lessan, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Tallahassee Democrat
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