J une 19 Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announces plans for a migrant detention center in the Everglades via X. The state has declared its official name to be Alligator Alcatraz. June 21 Protesters begin gathering near the proposed site at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport as trucks carrying supplies and fill dirt stream in.

Surrounded by the low hum of swamp bugs, Anthony Sleiman pointed his camera to the west. The conservation photographer was more than 15 miles from the state’s newly built immigrant detention center, dubbed Alligator Alcatraz.

A state-run detention facility for migrants has opened in the Florida Everglades. Alligator Alcatraz - that is the official name - was assembled in eight days and opened on July 1. President Donald Trump visited the remote site on opening day, built at an old runway near the Miami-Dade and Collier county line.