TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Environmentalists on Tuesday pushed back on President Donald Trump’s praise and Florida officials’ defense of choosing a site in the Everglades for an immigration detention facility.
Trump toured the “Alligator Alcatraz” site, landing on the training airport’s 10,500-foot runway, after environmental groups asked a federal court Friday to halt the project.
“We’re surrounded by miles of treacherous swampland, and the only way out really is deportation,” Trump said after his tour.
Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity last Friday sued the Department of Homeland Security and state Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie, claiming they failed to seek environmental reviews required under federal law.
