Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has been getting a lot of attention this week for erecting an ICE deportation camp on an abandoned airstrip in the heart of the Florida Everglades and calling it “Alligator Alcatraz.” In a glossy video, he suggests that the flood-prone wetland is perfect for housing detained immigrants in the heat of the summer because if anyone escapes “there’s not much waiting for them — other than alligators and pythons.”

As a policy, building a tent city in a fragile swamp during hurricane season doesn’t make much sense, but Uthmeier needed a publicity stunt. The little-known politician has held the job for six months and is facing a serious election challenge from Democratic former state Senator Jose Javier Rodriguez. Conjuring up harsh conditions for undocumented immigrants may not only get Uthmeier the attention of President Donald Trump, but also give him traction with Florida’s MAGA voters. Indeed, the federal government is already backing the plan, giving Uthmeier $450 million in taxpayer money to dish out in no-bid construction contracts to potential political donors.

“Alligator Alcatraz” is catchy branding but a misnomer. Unlike the former maximum-security prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, Florida’s “Alcatraz” won’t be housing convicts. In fact, no one knows if it’ll be housing anyone who has ever been charged with a crime.

Moreover, the proposal is not a sustainable plan. The area is prone to floods, tropical storms and hurricanes. The Miccosukee and Seminole tribes, who live in villages just a mile from the site, don’t want the project on land they consider sacred. There have been numerous development proposals at the site before, and every one of them has been killed because of intense environmental opposition. Groups are already warning that the development could sacrifice decades of investment to restore the Everglades. As the Sierra Club said in its statement Tuesday, “to pave over a portion of this irreplaceable landscape for a high‑security prison is nothing short of ecological vandalism.”

Although Uthmeier said in an interview with conservative commentator Benny Johnson last week that “Alligator Alcatraz” will be “temporary” and have 5,000 beds by the first week of July, the inevitable lawsuits could drag out construction.

But even if the plan doesn’t come to pass, the prospect offers a disturbing window into the dystopian priorities of Florida’s 37-year-old attorney general, a rising presence in Republican politics in the nation’s third-largest state.

Uthmeier, a graduate of Georgetown Law School, is the beneficiary of high-level political dominoes. He was appointed attorney general in January by Governor Ron DeSantis, who named then-Attorney General Ashley Moody to the U.S. Senate to replace Marco Rubio, who became Trump’s Secretary of State.

Since then, Uthmeier has employed the same propagandist skills that made him a successful yes-man as DeSantis’ chief of staff, serving as the front line in Florida’s culture wars.

One of his big achievements so far is creating the Office of Parental Rights to handle such things as helping parents file lawsuits against schools for refusing to ban books and sending warning letters to co-ed summer camps about cohabitation complaints.

He’s also an advocate for suppressing speech he doesn’t like. He’s suing Target for supporting LGBTQ rights and, last week, he suggested on his personal X account that Ilhan Omar, a Democratic representative from Minnesota, be deported after she spoke out against aggressive ICE raids.

Uthmeier has also repeatedly protected powerful interests and the governor’s personal agenda over the interests of the taxpaying public. For example, in 2022 he ran interference for the governor’s secretive ploy to fly Venezuelan migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, and persuaded state transportation officials to waive agency rules so that the politically-connected contractor who flew the planes was paid twice for flights it delivered only once.

He has repeatedly violated state sunshine laws by refusing to turn over public records, and this year, Republican legislators investigated Uthmeier for money laundering and wire fraud after he helped steer $10 million of Medicaid settlement money into a private foundation run by the governor’s wife, Casey DeSantis. Uthmeier defended the transaction, stonewalled investigators, and lawmakers adjourned the legislative session without completing the probe after witnesses backed out of testifying.

Uthmeier’s view of federal immigration policy is especially distorted. He has parroted the Trump administration’s draconian interpretations of the law, undermining long-established protections for refugees and asylum seekers. Uthmeier and DeSantis have also drafted a dehumanizing “blueprint” for mass deportation that lowers detention standards below what the federal government requires.

He’s also followed the White House’s footsteps and shown himself willing to defy court orders on immigration. A new Florida law makes it a crime for undocumented immigrants to cross state lines. When it was challenged earlier this year, a federal judge issued a temporary halt to the law and ordered Uthmeier to notify police not to enforce it. He refused. Last week, she held him in contempt.

His response: “If being held in contempt is what it costs to defend the rule of law and stand firmly behind President Trump's agenda on illegal immigration, so be it.” He appealed the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday.

Uthmeier seems determined to show that Florida can deport as many people as quickly as possible, regardless of the law, morality, or even public opinion. Is such brutal political theater the way to rise in U.S. politics today? If so, it’s a sad statement on the currency of once-treasured American values of compassion, justice and integrity.

____

This column reflects the personal views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Mary Ellen Klas is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. A former capital bureau chief for the Miami Herald, she has covered politics and government for more than three decades.

©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com/opinion. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.