{"id":329336,"date":"2026-07-04T14:11:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T14:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/329336\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T14:11:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T14:11:21","slug":"miccosukee-tribe-member-wants-alligator-alcatraz-but-miami-doesnt-have-the-land-back-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/329336\/","title":{"rendered":"Miccosukee Tribe member wants \u2018Alligator Alcatraz\u2019 \u2014 but Miami doesn\u2019t have the land back"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was originally published<\/a> by Florida Phoenix.<\/p>\n

Liv Caputo
Florida Phoenix<\/a><\/p>\n

A Miccosukee Tribe member wants her nation to be the new protector of the so-called \u201dAlligator Alcatraz\u201d site, calling Friday on Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to give it the territory to conserve.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a problem.<\/p>\n

The DeSantis administration, which\u00a0controversially seized<\/a>\u00a0the land last summer, still hasn\u2019t given it back to the county, even after the state cleared out the lockup\u2019s detainees and declared the center closed for business.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This means Miami can\u2019t begin to sell or transfer the Everglades land to a conservator, as planned \u2014 at least not yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe State has not returned the land to the County and has provided no timeline for doing so,\u201d Dianne Fernandez, Cava\u2019s deputy director of communications, told the Phoenix in an email. She provided a letter Cava sent Monday to the governor, asking DeSantis to coordinate the site\u2019s \u201corderly transition\u201d back to Miami-Dade.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s office referred the Phoenix to the Florida Division of Emergency Management, the agency in charge of \u201cAlligator Alcatraz\u201d operations, which has not responded to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlligator Alcatraz\u201d was hastily built last summer atop the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, a 5,120-acre plot deep within the Everglades complete with a 10,000-foot runway for pilots learning to fly. Although owned by Miami-Dade County \u2014 until it was temporarily commandeered last June \u2014 the airport pays taxes to Collier County.<\/p>\n

The county estimates its value at $20 million. Cava, however, had estimated in early conversations with state government before construction that the plot would be worth closer to $190 million. State officials disagreed, and simply seized the land under emergency declaration instead of paying out Cava\u2019s hefty request.<\/p>\n

Remarkably, after a year of bitter debate between politicos and activists over the facility and its alleged wrongdoings \u2014 although none have been proven in court \u2014 the one point many agree on appears to be the site\u2019s future as an environmental safe haven.<\/p>\n

Attorney General James Uthmeier, the mastermind behind the facility, and Cava both have\u00a0advocated<\/a>\u00a0to environmentally protect the land. After DeSantis announced the facility\u2019s shuttering, Cava\u00a0declared<\/a>\u00a0her plan to sell or transfer the site to an environmental conservator, such as the National Park Service.<\/p>\n

Miccosukee Tribe member Betty Osceola said her nation is an interested buyer, considering its reservation abuts \u201cAlligator Alcatraz\u201d and it\u2019s been an active environmental opponent of the facility\u2019s construction and operation. The tribe joined most of the legal onslaught against the state for its alleged environmental harms caused by the facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cMiami-Dade County has title to the landscape, but all of Florida belongs to the indigenous people, regardless of what name and county you want to give to it,\u201d Osceola said during a Friday press conference. She insisted tribe members would devote \u201c110%\u201d to preserving the land if it were theirs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI encourage the mayor\u2019s office to have those conversations with the Miccosukee Tribe to see how [a transfer] could happen,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

However, the Tribe said Osceola speaks for herself \u2014 not for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Tribe\u2019s official positions are established through its elected leadership. At this time, Chairman Talbert Cypress has not issued any public statement or expressed any intention that the Tribe seeks ownership or control of the land,\u201d chief communications officer Alvaro Zabaleta said.<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s office did not respond to questions about whether aides have spoken with the Miccosukees or any other buyer.<\/p>\n

Correction: This story has been updated to show that Betty Osceola\u2019s comments are hers, and not representative of the Miccosukee Tribe.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was originally published by Florida Phoenix. Liv CaputoFlorida Phoenix A Miccosukee Tribe member wants her nation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-329336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}