President Donald Trump vetoed legislation on Tuesday that would have sent infrastructure funding to a Florida-based American Indian tribe currently suing to shut down Alligator Alcatraz.
In one of the first vetoes of his second term, Trump rejected the Miccosukee Reserved Area Amendments Act, citing the tribe’s opposition to his immigration policies and the cost of the legislation. The bill would have expanded the portion of Everglades National Park reserved for the Miccosukee Tribe and required the Department of the Interior to provide anti-flooding infrastructure for the added land.
“My Administration is committed to preventing American taxpayers from funding projects for special interests, especially those that are unaligned with my Administration’s policy of removing violent criminal illegal aliens from the country,” Trump wrote in his veto message. “Ending the massive cost of taxpayer handouts and restoring fiscal sanity is vital to economic growth and the fiscal health of the Nation.”
Earlier this year, the Miccosukee Tribe sued the Trump administration and the state of Florida over the opening of Alligator Alcatraz, an illegal immigrant detention center in the Everglades. In September, a federal appeals court rejected the tribe’s request for a preliminary injunction to shut down the facility.
The Miccosukee Reserved Area Amendments Act was passed earlier this year by unanimous consent in the Senate and by voice vote in the House. It was introduced by Florida Republican Carlos Gimenez.
The measure would have expanded the Miccosukee Reserved Area to include an area known as the “Osceola Camp” and required the federal government to protect the land from flooding. According to Trump, the Miccosukee have already established a residential community at Osceola Camp.
The Biden administration developed a plan to invest up to $14 million in infrastructure in the area, but it never went into effect.
“But 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. This principle carries especially heavy weight here; it is not the Federal Government’s responsibility to pay to fix problems in an area that the Tribe has never been authorized to occupy.”
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Trump also vetoed a bill on Tuesday that would have continued federal funding for the Arkansas Valley Conduit, a pipeline intended to provide water to southeastern Colorado. Trump said that the project had become too expensive and was too local in scope.
“Enough is enough,” Trump wrote. “My administration is committed to preventing American taxpayers from funding expensive and unreliable policies. Ending the massive cost of taxpayer handouts and restoring fiscal sanity is vital to economic growth and the fiscal health of the Nation.”
The two bills were Trump’s first vetoes of his second term.

