OCHOPEE, Fla. (WSVN) — The controversial migrant detention center in the Florida Everglades is open for business, but officials woke up to some challenges they need to fix before the arrival of dozens of migrants.
Downpours that fell on the area dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” led to some minor flooding on Wednesday morning.
The flooding is just one of the challenges facing elected officials going forward. Hurricane season has begun, and the center consists of trailers and heavy duty tents.
But during the high-profile visit to the detention center by President Donald Trump and other elected leaders, the state’s executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, Kevin Guthrie, told reporters they have a hurricane plan if the situation arises.
“As with all state correctional facilities, we have a hurricane plan. We will not wait for a Category 2, we will follow our normal evacuation procedures as we do for any other facility statewide in our great state of Florida,” said Guthrie.
Officials said the facility is expected to house roughly 5,000 undocumented migrants.
“You got it done in how many days?” Trump asked Gov. Ron DeSantis during their tour on Tuesday.
“Eight days a new facility was up and running,” said DeSantis.
Trump said he would approve the governor’s plan to use certain members of the Florida National Guard to act as immigration judges.
On Wednesday, a C-17 aircraft was captured circling the facility and then appearing to land. It remains unclear who or what may have been on the aircraft.
Also, just a quarter-mile outside the facility’s gate, Florida Department of Transportation workers installed “Alligator Alcatraz” signs. A gator could be seen looking at the project from down below in the wetland.
Before another round of rain poured down on the facility, Stella Rooker and her family, who are in town from Dallas, decided to take a detour from their Everglades trip to check out the detention site.
“We decided, ‘Hey, we want to see if it’s up and what’s going on here, to see if the facility is up?’ Because they got it up really quick,” said Rooker.
Rooker said she’s in support of the new site, as it expands the detention capacity for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
“Mostly because the struggles that we are having, especially politically, to try to get some of these unwanted criminals from our country,” she said.
She did make note of the environment that surrounds the migrant facility, which has led two environmental groups to file a lawsuit.
“The environment is beautiful, the water is beautiful. It’s got storks and birds and even just the atmosphere of it,” said Rooker.
Those in opposition are trying to halt the project due to its potential impact on wetlands and wildlife.
In a court filing, Florida Division of Emergency Management Deputy Director Keith Pruett argued the airstrip has long been an active training site with thousands of flights, and the impact to the environment would be minimal.
Florida’s Attorney General James Uthmeier said hundreds of migrants would arrive to the center on Wednesday night where they will be processed and then sent “back to where they came from,” according to his latest social media post.
But as of late Wednesday night, it remained unclear if any migrants had arrived.