Highway ads against ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ went dark for a day. Who is to blame?
Digital billboards opposing Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” debuted this week on two highways outside Miami — but the campaign didn’t last long before a complaint prompted an outdoor advertising company to remove the messages that were paid for by an immigrant-rights group.
By Wednesday morning, the ads were live again. The source of the complaint remains in dispute.
Thomas Kennedy, who placed the digital ads for the Florida Immigrant Coalition, said a sales representative for Outfront Media identified Kevin Guthrie, the governor’s emergency management director, as the source of a complaint that caused a pause in the display of digital ads that went up Monday on Interstate 95 and State Road 836.
The media office for Florida’s Division of Emergency Management denied Kennedy’s claim, which he first made in a social media post.
“This is false,” Stephanie Hartman, deputy director of communications for the agency, said in an email to the Miami Herald. In a second email, Hartman said no agency staff contacted Outfront about the ads, either. Representatives of Outfront were not available for comment Wednesday.
The Herald reviewed text messages from Kennedy showing an exchange with an Outfront sales executive that matches what Kennedy said the company told him.
“My manager had them taken down until we have approval. It should be back up tmrw morning if approved,” the sales executive wrote in a message Kennedy said he received Tuesday afternoon. “Kevin Guthrie the executive director of Florida Division of Emergency Management is who reached out.”
The Herald was unable to interview the sales representative, and it’s not known if the representative had direct knowledge of the source of the complaint, including whether the complaint came directly to Outfront or if it was relayed by another organization or individual.
The ads target Miami-Dade County’s Democratic mayor, Daniella Levine Cava, with criticism that she isn’t fighting the Florida detention facility, which was built on a county-owned airfield in the Everglades. Last month, Guthrie invoked the governor’s authority to seize the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport from Miami-Dade, saying it was needed to address the ongoing state of emergency over immigration that DeSantis declared in 2023 while Joe Biden was president.
While Levine Cava has criticized the state facility, she hasn’t taken action to retake the land or block construction. The Florida Immigrant Coalition ads urge the public to call the mayor’s office and demand opposition.
“Tell Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and County Officials. Sue to stop the Everglades Detention Camp,” the ads read.
Kennedy said he heard from the Outfront representative Tuesday that there was a complaint that the ads contain inaccurate information. The ads, he said, came off the rotation for Outfront digital billboards that afternoon as the company researched the complaint. By Wednesday morning, the ads resumed.
“They were wonderful,” Kennedy said of Outfront. “No complaints at all.”
Last year, the DeSantis administration threatened television stations with criminal charges over political ads supporting an abortion-rights ballot item the governor opposed. The state Department of Health claimed the ads broadcast harmful information to expectant mothers. A federal judge sided with the advocacy group airing the ads and supporting the item, which failed in the November elections.
While Kennedy said he didn’t fault Outfront for how it handled the alleged state complaint about his group’s ads, he said the events represent an attack on political speech.
“It’s outrageous,” he said.
This story was originally published July 9, 2025 at 6:20 PM.