In a matter of days, an isolated training airport in the Everglades where endangered Florida panthers roam became a sprawling immigration center christened "Alligator Alcatraz,” modeled after the state’s frequent responses to hurricanes and built in part by companies whose owners have donated generously to Republicans.
It’s been less than two weeks since the state seized the property from Miami-Dade County. Massive tents have been erected and a steady stream of trucks carrying portable toilets, asphalt and construction materials have been driving through the site inside the Big Cypress National Preserve around the clock in what environmentalists fear will have a devastating impact on the wildlife in the protected wetlands.
