Florida Construction Immigration Detention Center

Florida has begun building a detention center called “crocodile” to temporarily place immigrants on the air strips of the Everglades.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the facility will be “to a large extent” by the Federal Emergency Services Shelter and Services Program, which was previously used to provide accommodation and other assistance to undocumented immigrants.

The plan has been criticized by several lawmakers, including the mayor of Miami-Dade County, who believe it could be environmentally “destructive.”

The proposal comes as Trump attempts to make a campaign pledge to increase the deportation of illegal immigrants.

“Under President Trump, we are making cost-effective and innovative ways at the speed of turbine speed to fulfill the American people’s mandate for the mass expulsion of criminal illegal foreigners,” Noim said in a statement.

“We will expand facilities and beds in just a few days thanks to our partnership with Florida.”

The facility will be built at the location of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, about 58 km (36 miles) from Miami. It will cost about US$450 million (£332 million) each year.

In the video posted on X, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier called the airport a “almost abandoned facility.”

He said the detention center could be built in 30 to 60 days, with an estimated 1,000 people.

He argued that the site was a natural deterrent for survivors.

Uthmeier said in the video: “[If] People, go out, don’t wait for them much except for crocodiles and pythons. There is nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. ”

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniela Levine Cava criticized the plan, saying “the impact on the Everglades ecosystem can be devastating.”

The Florida Everglades are a unique environmental area including swamps, prairie, forests, mangroves and estuaries. Uthmeier said the facility will not be located in the Everglades National Park.