‘The job is getting done’: Gov. DeSantis shrugs off Alligator Alcatraz criticism

Florida’s Governor continues to reject environmental and local concerns about Alligator Alcatraz.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a Marco Island event that there won’t be adverse impacts to the Everglades. He’s also not concerned about what Collier County thinks about the quick process to construct the prison for migrants ahead of deportation on the edge of the Everglades at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport.

Noting that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is “not ready yet” to handle warehousing illegal immigrants ahead of deportation, DeSantis rebutted concerns about the “one-stop shop.”

“This is an existing airport. It’s an existing concrete. They’re not doing anything outside of a footprint they show, and they have a lot of great plans for how to handle everything that happens. And so that’s just not an issue,” DeSantis said.

Because the structure existed already, DeSantis is confident that the enhancements won’t adversely impact wetlands nearby.

“There’s concrete, there’s like a fence line, and they’re doing the operations. They take the wastewater out and they truck it out, they bring in potable water, and that’s just how they manage it,” DeSantis said.

“The fact that they had this facility there, or the runway and everything there, was the reason why we did it. We would not have created this out of whole cloth.”

The Governor was also unstinting in defending the state government’s prerogative to stand up the facility despite Collier County officials being “blindsided” by the project, according to The Associated Press.

“My administration had a job to do, and they did it. And they didn’t twiddle their thumbs. They didn’t sit on their hands. They constructed a processing and deportation facility in a week. How many other places, other states, would have been able to get that done?” DeSantis said.

“They were mission focused. They did it. I think that they didn’t want to be in a situation where they were delaying. They wanted to get the job done, and the job is getting done.”

Yet DeSantis believes the “job” won’t be permanent.

“(Once) DHS gets to a point where they’re able to handle this, then clearly, you know, that’s their core responsibility,” DeSantis explained.

“But I know they’re not ready yet. I hope they’ll be ready relatively soon, but that’s why we did it, because they do not have the capacity to be able to process these illegal aliens and put them for an easy deportation.”

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Material from The Associated Press was used in this report. Reporting with permission.