Miami-Dade mayor demands access to Everglades detention camp on seized county land

Miami-Dade’s mayor wants Florida to lift the secrecy around the immigration detention center in the Everglades and allow monitoring of the 3,000-bed compound hastily built on a seized county airport.

“I am writing to formally request that Miami-Dade County be granted monitoring access to the state-managed facility referred to as ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’” Daniella Levine Cava, a Democrat, wrote in a Tuesday letter to Florida’s Republican attorney general, James Uthmeier.

She cited environmental concerns and reports of poor conditions in federal immigration detention centers across the country in asking for the county to be given access to monitor the makeshift jail that was built under emergency powers Gov. Ron DeSantis granted himself under Florida law. Until the state seized the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport on June 23, Levine Cava had authority over the county property.

The letter is the most confrontational message yet from Levine Cava on the state commandeering county land to create a complex of cages in air-conditioned tents off of the Tamiami Trail highway. It’s become the most well-known immigration detention facility in the country, a reputation capped by a presidential visit last week.

When the DeSantis administration first notified Levine Cava of the imminent takeover under a state of emergency the governor declared in 2023 over illegal immigration under President Joe Biden, the mayor wrote back with environmental and financial concerns and requested the state slow down its plans for the property.

That June 23 letter from Levine Cava did not raise concerns about the treatment of detainees, as did the most recent request, in which the mayor asked that Uthmeier allow the county to both monitor the site remotely via video and to send county oversight teams to visit in person. She also requested weekly state reports on the conditions at the detention facility.

The Uthmeier letter comes as Levine Cava is ramping up her criticism of both the Trump administration’s deportation actions and DeSantis’ efforts to help.

“Miami-Dade stands as a beacon of hope and opportunity, where immigrants contribute to our economy, culture, and community every day,” Levine Cava wrote in a recent opinion piece sent to newspapers around Florida. “The current harsh federal approach not only endangers these individuals, but also weakens the moral fabric of our nation. We must reject policies that promote fear and division, and instead embrace approaches grounded in dignity and respect for human rights.”

On Tuesday, Levine Cava also requested that the Trump administration produce a report detailing all deaths this year of people held in Florida by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Citing reports by the Miami Herald and others, the mayor wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem asking for the report and to say she was alarmed by reports that pregnant women and children could also end up at the Everglades detention center. She said the facility, like the nearby federal Krome detention center, are miles from health facilities and lacking in public exposure.

“Detention centers like Krome and the newly opened facility in the Everglades have been placed in isolated areas with poor access to hospitals and legal counsel,” she wrote. “Families and advocates are being shut out, and the public is left in the dark.“

The criticism comes as Levine Cava is under pressure from environmental and immigration-advocacy groups to fight back against the DeSantis takeover of the county airport. This week, the Florida Immigration Coalition purchased digital billboard space along State Road 836 and on Interstate 95 with a message urging Levine Cava to “sue to stop the Everglades Detention Camp.”

“We’re not going to let her and the county slither away on this,” said Thomas Kennedy, a representative of the advocacy group. “They have the best standing to sue over this.”

A federal lawsuit by Friends of the Everglades claims the county’s zoning department under Levine Cava should assert county authority to block construction on the site.

Looming over the potential confrontation between DeSantis and Levine Cava, a potential future Democratic candidate for statewide or federal office, is the governor’s authority to suspend locally elected officials for alleged misconduct or a failure to enforce state laws. In the Friends of the Everglades suit, a county lawyer said Miami-Dade officials could face gubernatorial suspensions if they were seen as obstructing Florida’s construction of the Everglades facility.

“State law affirmatively requires the County to use best efforts to support the enforcement of federal immigration law, and the County’s failure to comply with that statutory duty could have dramatically adverse consequences for the public interest, including but not limited to the suspension from office of County officials elected by the voters,” wrote Christopher Wahl, an assistant county attorney.

Uthmeier, who until February was the governor’s chief of staff, coined the “Alligator Alcatraz” brand for the temporary facility constructed along the 10,500-foot runway on an airfield 40 miles west of Miami International Airport and surrounded by the Big Cypress National Preserve.

President Donald Trump toured the spot last week after landing Air Force One there, and his Homeland Security Department paid homage to the state facility on June 28 by posting on social media an illustration depicting alligators wearing ICE caps outside a prison. The caption read: “Coming soon!”

This story was originally published July 8, 2025 at 3:03 PM.