Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport (KTNT) is entering its second week in its repurposed role, as the Florida airstrip continues to serve as a controversial immigration detention center that the Trump administration hopes will lay the foundation for a more speedy deportation process.
Nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz,” the isolated airport is located 45 miles west of Miami in the Big Cypress National Preserve and surrounded by python- and alligator-filled swamps. More than a detention unit, the president is hoping the center provides a motivating force for potential detainees to self-deport.
On Sunday, the Miami Herald reported that over 700 migrants are being held at the airport. The center itself spans over 10 miles and was built in just eight days. Pop-up tents containing chain-linked detention units have sprung up all over the airfield, surrounded by over 28,000 feet of barbed-wire fencing.
Owned by Miami-Dade County, the airport was seized by the state of Florida just two weeks before the rapid construction and subsequent opening on July 3. Governor Ron Desantis reinvoked 2023 state emergency powers, where he declared a state of emergency on the basis of an illegal immigration crisis in Florida, in order to take control of the land.
Since the announcement of the detention center, advocates in the aviation community, along with environmental and conservation groups, have called for the airport to be returned to its original use.
KTNT had sparsely been used in recent years as a functioning airport and training facility due to its remote location. But it remained one of the only options for precautionary or emergency landings along a commonly-flown route between Naples, Florida, and Miami.
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Southern regional manager Stacey Heaton said she had received numerous calls from pilots concerned about potential loss of the airport’s 10,499-foot runway.
“Our members are also concerned about flight restrictions that may be imposed around the airport once the detention center is operational,” Heaton said. “For these reasons, we hope the state will consider returning TNT to public use.”
Originally imagined as a beacon of aviation innovation, KTNT was scheduled to become the world’s largest airport when it began construction in the 1960s. It was intended for the airport to have six runways and would have been five-times larger than John F. Kennedy International Airport (KJFK).
Inspiration for the airport was driven by futuristic ambitions. In anticipation of the ill-fated Boeing 2707, the location was chosen to position South Florida as a hub of supersonic travel where the impact of breaking the sound barrier near a residential population would be minimized.
In what’s considered Florida’s first environmental impact study, the “Environmental Impact Report of the Big Cypress Swamp Jetport,” also known as the Leopold-Marshall Report, in 1969 stated that construction of the airport would “inexorably destroy the South Florida ecosystem,” scrapping the grand plans for the airport.
Eventually, the site was constructed as a training facility where the isolated area created the opportunity for 24/7 training operations. The advent of modern flight simulators decreased KTNT’s utility as a training center over the years, making it a plausible candidate for seizure by the state.
