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- By Levi Rickert
On Monday, President Donald Trump vetoed bipartisan legislation that would have expanded and clarified the Miccosukee Tribe’s land in Florida’s Everglades. The veto appears to be in retribution of the tribe’s opposition to “Alligator Alcatraz,” an immigration detention center, located near Miccosukee ancestral tribal land.
Trump’s veto drew sharp criticism from tribal leaders who say the decision improperly ties tribal land rights to federal immigration policy.
The bill, H.R. 504, the "Miccosukee Reserved Area Amendments Act, passed both chambers of Congress without opposition, would have amended the Miccosukee Reserved Area Act to formally include the tribe’s historic Osceola Camp and direct the Interior Department to work with the tribe to protect homes and infrastructure from flooding.
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In his veto message, Trump explicitly linked the legislation to the Miccosukee Tribe’s opposition to his administration’s immigration enforcement efforts, including the tribe’s participation in a lawsuit seeking to block construction of an immigration detention facility in the Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”
“Despite seeking funding and special treatment from the federal government, the Miccosukee Tribe has actively sought to obstruct reasonable immigration policies that the American people decisively voted for when I was elected,” Trump wrote. He added that his administration would not support projects “unaligned with my administration’s policy of removing violent criminal illegal aliens from the country.”
Miccosukee leaders rejected that characterization, saying the legislation was unrelated to immigration and focused instead on public safety, environmental protection and longstanding tribal presence in the Everglades.
“This bill was about protecting our people, our homes and a historic Miccosukee community that has existed for generations,” Miccosukee Chairman Talbert Cypress said in a statement. “It was not about special treatment, and it certainly was not about immigration.”
Cypress said the tribe’s lawsuit opposing the detention facility stemmed from concerns about environmental harm and compliance with federal law, not an attempt to interfere with immigration enforcement.
“We have a responsibility to protect the Everglades and our ancestral lands,” he said. “Those concerns should not be used as political leverage to deny our people basic protections.”
The Miccosukee Tribe, whose reservation lands are interwoven with federal and state lands in South Florida, has long sought formal recognition and protection of Osceola Camp, a remote settlement vulnerable to flooding during storms and rising water levels.
Lawmakers from both parties supported the bill, calling it a narrow, technical fix that acknowledged tribal use of the land and improved coordination with federal agencies.
The veto marks one of the first of Trump’s second term and has raised concerns among tribal advocates about the use of presidential veto power to retaliate against tribes that challenge federal policies.
Congress could attempt to override the veto, but doing so would require a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate.
For now, Miccosukee leaders say they will continue to pursue protections for their land and people through other means.
“Our sovereignty and our rights are not conditional,” Cypress said. “They are inherent, and we will continue to defend them.”
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