TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida is seeking to join a federal lawsuit aimed at halting the construction of a new immigration detention facility in the Everglades, which tribal members consider their sacred ancestral homelands.
Miccosukee leaders had already condemned the facility. But the filing Monday of a motion to intervene in the case initially brought by environmental groups signals a new level of opposition by the tribe, which is also a major political donor in the state.
READ MORE: Hundreds of detainees in Alligator Alcatraz have no criminal records, Herald/Times reports
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration rapidly built the facility, which state officials have dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz," on an isolated, county-owned airstrip inside the Big Cypress National Preserve, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of downtown Miami.
The Miccosukee have lived on and cared for the lands of Big Cypress “since time immemorial,” the filing reads, noting that the tribe played an integral role in pushing for the creation of the national preserve, the country's first.
“The area now known as the Preserve is a core piece of the Tribe’s homeland. Today, all of the Tribe’s active ceremonial sites and a significant majority of the Tribe’s traditional villages (sometimes known as “clan camps”) are within the Preserve,” the filing reads.
The lawsuit originally filed by the Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity seeks to halt the project until it undergoes a stringent environmental review as required by federal and state law. There is also supposed to be a chance for public comment, the plaintiffs argue.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the judge in the case was yet to act on the groups' requests for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction.
Judith LeBlanc, executive director of Native Organizers Alliance, said sacred tribal sites across the U.S. "are being threatened by development that is happening without the required consent of tribes who have called these lands home since time began."
"The Miccosukee Tribe has an inherent right to determine the future of their ancestral homelands," LeBlanc said in a statement. "The construction of 'Alligator Alcatraz' is a violation of the sovereign rights of the Miccosukee and endangers a culturally and ecologically important landscape."
WLRN News Staff contributed to this story.
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Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
