Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s administration kept local officials entirely in the dark while rapidly constructing a sprawling immigration detention centre in the Everglades, newly obtained emails reveal. The facility, dubbed ”Alligator Alcatraz,” was built at breakneck speed, with the state relying on an executive order to seize land and circumvent established laws and regulations.
More than 100 emails, dated from June 21 to July 1 and acquired through a public records request by The Associated Press, expose the extent to which authorities in southwest Florida were left unaware. Local officials were reportedly still pursuing a "rumour" about the planned compound, even as state personnel were already on site, coordinating construction and sending vendors to the isolated airstrip.
