'Alligator Alcatraz' must be stopped. Here's why - and what we're doing about it

VoteWater opposes ‘Alligator Alcatraz,” and we’re working to stop it.

VoteWater and its partners sent a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General James Uthmeier urging them to halt this ill-advised project.

We are helping to marshall opposition to further construction and operation of the immigrant detention center. And you can join that opposition by clicking the button below and signing the petition.

We're also supporting our friends at Friends of the Everglades, who along with the Center for Biological Diversity have sued to halt further work on the detention center. The lawsuit alleges, among other things, that the facility is being constructed without an environmental review required under the National Environmental Policy Act, and that Florida has not given the public a chance to weigh in.

We oppose “Alligator Alcatraz” because of the potential impacts to the greater Everglades ecosystem. If it’s bad for the Everglades, it’s bad for Florida.

But we also oppose the lack of transparency, the apparent corruption involved in the rushed construction, and the heedlessness with which the facility has been built.

Last week Florida Rep. Anna Eskamani posted on Instagram screenshots suggesting Florida Attorney General Uthmeier — the apparent brains behind the detention center — had gotten political contributions from some of the contractors involved in constructing it. VoteWater will be doing additional work to track this “dirty money.”

DeSantis and Uthmeier say there’s a plan to truck the human waste generated by 3,000 detainees and 1,000 staff offsite. They insist they’ve planned for the possibility of a hurricane and can evacuate the site in short order. Despite the fact that witnesses report dozens if not hundreds of dump trucks loaded with fill entering the site, DeSantis and Uthmeier insist that all construction has taken place on the already-paved runway, that no harm will come to the fragile wetland environment.

Trust us, they say.

We do not.

VoteWater backs prudent governance. Recklessness got us to where we are now — with polluted waterways up and down the state and elected officials who take too much dirty money and do too little to fix our problems.

We need better governance, not just bolder government.

And if you value clean water for fishing or boating, if you understand the importance of the greater Everglades ecosystem to south Florida and worry there was no public process to air the many legitimate concerns about “Alligator Alcatraz” — please join us in opposing this.

Dem AG candidate JJR on "Alligator Alcatraz": "This thing's a disaster from top to bottom"

This week VoteWater's Gil Smart interviewed Democratic Attorney General candidate Jose Javier Rodriguez on a variety of topics, including Part 1 where Rodriguez rips the corruption and likely environmental impact of "Alligator Alcatraz" — brainchild of current Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, whom Rodriguez may square off against in 2026. Check it out at the link and stay tuned to our social media pages for more clips from the interview.