The State of Florida, with the support of Governor Ron DeSantis and Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie, is building a massive immigrant detention center in the heart of the Everglades, one of the most ecologically fragile and hazardous places in the country. Nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz," this facility is slated to detain thousands of migrants in tents and trailers surrounded by floodwaters, extreme heat, and wildlife—all under the guise of emergency powers.
This is not about public safety or emergency preparedness. It's about political cruelty and spectacle, turning Florida's natural hazards into a prison wall.
Director Kevin Guthrie has a choice. He knows the risks. As Florida's top emergency management official, he has spent his career preparing for climate disasters and protecting lives. Yet he is helping make this detention site a reality—signing off on logistics, access, and enabling the use of emergency funds. And he is doing all of this in the middle of hurricane season.
We are calling on Director Kevin Guthrie to stop this project now. To refuse complicity. To uphold his duty to protect—not endanger—human life.
By signing this letter, you are joining others from across Florida in urging Director Guthrie to do what he knows is right.
Dear Director Guthrie,
As someone who has served the people of Florida during hurricanes, wildfires, and every kind of crisis, I know you understand what it means to lead in times of danger. You've built your career on protecting lives and strengthening community resilience.
That's why your role in enabling the development of a massive and dangerous immigration detention site—nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz"—in the heart of the Everglades is not just disappointing. It's a betrayal of everything you've stood for.
Let's be clear: building a detention center in the middle of a flood-prone, heat-stricken, ecologically sensitive swamp is a disaster waiting to happen. You know the risks: extreme weather, flooding, limited access to emergency services, exposure to mosquitoes, alligators, snakes, and suffocating heat. You've managed storm evacuations and coordinated vulnerable populations—how can you now justify confining thousands of people in tents and trailers in one of Florida's most inhospitable regions?
This isn't emergency management. It's political theater at the expense of human life and environmental integrity.
We know this facility isn't about public safety or disaster relief—it's about creating a spectacle of cruelty. It's about using state power to dehumanize immigrants, all for political headlines and the selling of t-shirts.
We, the people of Florida and taxpayers, urge you: do not be complicit. Do not allow your expertise and career to be weaponized in the service of xenophobia. Pull back your agency's support. Demand real impact assessments. Refuse to lend the credibility of yourself, your office, your industry, and your partners to this reckless project.
Because if something goes wrong—and it will—you won't be able to say you didn't know better.
You did. You do.
[Your comment here]
Sincerely,
[Your name here]
