Miami Beach’s mayor is asking the federal government to reject a proposed rule that he fears could make it easier for Indian tribes to buy land in his city and turn it into a resort casino, leapfrogging over the local opposition that has traditionally been the bulwark against gaming expansion in his town.

In a letter to the U.S. Department of the Interior on Tuesday, Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber tells the Bureau of Indian Affairs that its plan “can and will facilitate and hasten the introduction of off-reservation Indian gaming casinos.”

Under the proposal, tribes can buy off-reservation land, put it into a trust and benefit from the same exemptions from state and federal law that reservations enjoy, such as paying no property taxes, being exempt from environmental and zoning regulations, and limiting oversight of state and local law enforcement, said Thomas Gede, a lawyer specializing in American Indian law who has been hired to advise Miami Beach.