Special Coverage: Alligator Alcatraz Protest
Philip Cardella. June 22, 2025.
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside of the locked front gates of the mostly abandoned Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport on Sunday, June 22, 2025 starting around 10 AM. At least 250 cars lined the narrow part of Tamiami Trail just west of the Dade County line and just under 7 miles west of the Big Cypress National Preserve Oasis Visitors Center.
They were there to protest Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier's plan to turn the airport into a massive detention center for people without legal status in the United States awaiting deportation. The site, which he nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz," could be up in running in months, he claimed.
CBS Miami Report on Alligator Alcatraz
"You don't need to invest that much in the perimeter. People get out, there's not that much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons," Uthmeier said in a video posted on X. "Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide."
Protesters came from as far as Orlando as well as Florida's west and east coasts at this relatively remote location almost exactly halfway between Miami and Naples, Florida. Braving heat, mosquitos and occasional rain showers, as well as cars motoring along Florida's first highway to cross the Everglades, protesters chanted against ICE, in favor of protecting the Everglades and for unity.
Members of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians were present defending the sacred nature of the land. One protester said that this was not their first protest at this location. The site has been home to people for at least 2,000 years.
According to "Sam," the airport was originally built in 1968 to replace Miami International Airport, but protesters, led by a by then elderly Marjorie Stoneman Douglass, she who gave the Everglades the nickname "river of grass" demanded that the air not be developed. This led to the formation of the Big Cypress National Preserve, where the airport now sits.
A 1:30 video from the protest. Credit Philip Cardella Copyright 2025.
When Big Cypress National Preserve was officially designated in 1974, the park included an agreement with the Miccosukee, Seminole and Traditional people giving them "permanent rights to occupy and use the land in traditional ways; in addition, they have first rights to develop income-producing businesses related to the resources and use of the preserve, such as guided tours," per Wikipedia.
No alligator or snake bites were reported despite hundreds of protesters on the perimeter of the airport. It is hard to see why an escapee couldn't simply hitch a ride with a passing motorist or just walk to the Big Cypress Visitors Center 6.7 miles to the west or the Miccosukee Tribe's large visitor's center 10 miles to the east.