Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has donated a prime piece of downtown Miami real estate to a nonprofit raising money to build Donald Trump’s presidential library. The deal on the now-vacant property facing Biscayne Bay, next to the historic Freedom Tower, has sparked criticism from some in Miami’s Cuban-American community, who have dubbed the tower the “Ellis Island of the South.”
The Florida Cabinet — made up of DeSantis, the state’s attorney general, agriculture commissioner and chief financial officer, all of whom are Republicans — approved a transfer of the land after just a three-minute discussion Tuesday in Tallahassee.
The 2.63-acre tract was previously owned by Miami-Dade College. It is reportedly worth at least $67 million. It will be transferred to a nonprofit incorporated by the president’s son, Eric, and his son-in-law, Michael Boulos.
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Cuban-Americans upset over location
Cuban-Americans who opposed the land transfer argued that Trump’s immigration enforcement and mass deportation efforts have disproportionately impacted Latino communities, and are in direct conflict with the values epitomized by the Freedom Tower. It was a processing center — and symbol of freedom — for hundreds of thousands of Cubans who fled Fidel Castro’s Communist dictatorship in 1962. The building is now a museum after a $25 million renovation, according to The New York Times.
“I can’t think of any two narratives that are any more in opposition than the one humanity that the Freedom Tower is a symbol for, and then how this president has spoken about immigrants and immigration,” Ana Sofia Pelaez, executive director of the Miami Freedom Project and whose mother immigrated to the U.S from Cuba in the 1960s, told The Washington Post.
Supporters say it’s an ideal location
Proponents of the donation, however, assert that the land next to the iconic tower is an ideal location for the presidential library.
“It’s the story of Cuban immigrants that came to this country and to South Florida, mind you, through legal routes,” GOP state Rep. Juan Carlos Porras of Miami-Dade County told The Post. “The Cubans that came to South Florida at that time to start businesses that developed what is now Miami and South Florida, one of the most successful parts of our country, that envelops the most successful parts of the country, that envelopes the kind of immigration story that President Trump has always advocated for.”
Other potential development than library on the table
Trump has yet to pick a site, and the National Archives and Records Administration, which manages presidential library sites, has not commented on the matter.
According to The Times, the Trump family would not have to use the site exclusively for a presidential library. Instead, they could erect commercial buildings on the property, which reportedly has favorable zoning laws for projects such as luxury condos or a hotel, all with a scenic view of Biscayne Bay.
