OCHOPEE, Fla. — Protesters gathered along the side of the Tamiami Trail in the middle of the Florida Everglades, as President Donald Trump visited a controversial pop-up immigration detention center.
The demonstrations outside what officials have dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” remained peaceful while the president attended a roundtable event inside the facility on the grounds of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport.
“Demonstrators are really fired up and ready to go,” said Phyllis Andrews, one of dozens who showed up to protest the detention facility. “We don't want this prison here. There's no reason for this prison here.”
“This is wrong. And it’s inhumane,” said Rachel Bass, a protester from Cape Coral. “I’m a hurricane Ian survivor. I still have hurricane damage. FEMA did not help me. I didn't get a dime from FEMA. And so to hear that FEMA funds were being used for some of this, just added insult to injury.”
Other protesters called out the environmental impact of putting a large-scale facility, which promises to house thousands of inmates, in the middle of the Everglades and close to lands belonging to the Miccosukee tribe.
The opposition to the detention facility far outnumbered those who showed up to support the Trump administration.
Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was among the Trump supporters.
“This is making America safer, this is making America greater,” Tarrio said. “We didn't vote for cheaper eggs. We voted for two things: mass deportations and retribution. And we're getting both.”
Tarrio was released from a federal prison earlier this year after Trump granted him clemency after taking office. Tarrio was serving a 22-year sentence for a seditious conspiracy conviction related to his actions surrounding the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
He told WPTV his time in custody shaped his views about how inmates should be treated.
“I think inmates should be treated properly, and I think that they're gonna get treated properly here,” Tarrio said.
Despite the occasional verbal argument between opposing sides, the demonstrations remained peaceful into the afternoon.
The crowd started to shrink as summer thunderstorms rolled through.
