More than a dozen activists gathered in downtown Miami Monday afternoon to protest plans to build President Donald Trump’s library and a hotel next to the historic Freedom Tower, labeling it a “profound insult” to the county’s immigrant community.
Protest organizer Dr. Marvin Dunn also threatened legal action against state officials if the Florida Cabinet votes at 9 a.m. Tuesday to dedicate the valuable downtown Miami real estate for the presidential library project.
“I am outraged at how they did it secretly,” Dunn told WLRN regarding the Miami-Dade Board of Trustees vote to hand over the estimated $67 million lot to the state.
“No discussion during the meeting, no invitation for public input. So that's why we think we have a case for a class- action suit … if [the state] approves this tomorrow," said Dunn, an author and prominent local historian. He's professor emeritus at Florida International University.
The MDC Board of Trustees unanimously voted last Tuesday to transfer the land purchased in 2004 under then-President Eduardo J. Padrón to the State of Florida following a request from Gov. Ron DeSantis. That same day, DeSantis announced the state’s plans to give the land to the Presidential Library Foundation to create a library in honor of President Donald Trump.
Padrón told WLRN last week that the decision was “unimaginable,” as he hoped the land would be used to accommodate the college.
READ MORE: Former Miami Dade College president calls Trump library land giveaway ‘unimaginable’
Dunn said that he does not believe the vote followed Florida law, which states school trustees should make decisions over property “for use by and for the benefit of such Florida College System institution.”
“This is to the detriment of the Florida College System,” Dunn said. “This takes land away from our kids.”
Dunn said “no president should be given this land” and that "we need to respect that [Freedom Tower] history.”
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia have already pledged their support for the transfer, according to their posts on social media.
Those joining Monday's protest echoed Dunn's opposition.
“These are resources that our students can use, that we can use for classrooms, that we could use for an AI center, that we can use for the arts,” Yousi Mazpule, a creative writing teacher at Miami Dade College’s Wolfson campus, told WLRN.
“And the fact that it's being put right next to the Freedom Tower where so many Cubans ran from a dictator…that starved them, that manipulated them … it’s kind of like a slap in the face," said Mazpule, who emigrated to Miami from Cuba when she was a teenager.
Charly Morrell, a biology student at MDC’s Wolfson Campus who attended the protest wearing her lab coat, said she would want the land to be designated for parks and outdoor space.
“It would be great if we could implement some more green spaces into our communities, maybe, you know, a park, or add in some more trees, or maybe another building for education, for something that we don't have,” she told WLRN.
In an interview Sunday on WPLG Local 10’s "This Week in South Florida," Miami Dade College Trustee Roberto Alonso said there was never a master plan for the lot that sits in the center of downtown Miami’s tourist hub on Biscayne Boulevard.
He said he had no idea — prior to voting — that the land could be used for a presidential library but added it would help the college.
“It brings education. It brings research. It brings civic pride to our community,” he said.
Christiane Gramal, another public educator whose family immigrated from Cuba to Miami in the early 1960s, disagrees.
“[Trump] has a track record of destroying civic engagement and only supporting those world views that are in alignment with his own,” Grimal said.
