President Donald Trump touring the brand new “Alligator Alcatraz” migrant detention heart in Florida’s Everglades on Tuesday.
The Trump administration is popping the distant Dade-Collier Coaching and Transition Airport right into a facility that officers say will finally maintain as much as 5,000 individuals. Officers say operations will begin on Tuesday. The ability is a part of Trump’s efforts to ramp up deportations by increasing detention capability. The president has already despatched migrants to Guantánamo Bay and the mega-prison in El Salvador.
Requested by ABC Information’ Mary Bruce if the middle may very well be a brand new commonplace for immigration amenities within the U.S. regardless of criticism for its harsh circumstances, Trump mentioned, “It may be.”
“I imply, you do not all the time have land so lovely and so safe. They’ve loads of bodyguards and loads of cops which can be within the type of alligators. You don’t should pay them a lot however I would not need to run by way of the Everglades for lengthy. It would preserve individuals the place they’re purported to be. This can be a crucial factor,” he mentioned.
President President Donald Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and Secretary of Homeland Safety Kristi Noem tour a migrant detention heart, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” situated on the web site of the Dade-Collier Coaching and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Fla., July 1, 2025.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt mentioned Trump’s go to can be an opportunity for the president to tout the funding for extra detention amenities and efforts to enact Trump’s mass deportation coverage which can be in his megabill that the Senate might vote on Tuesday earlier than sending to the Home earlier than Trump’s Fourth of July deadline.
“I feel his journey to this detention facility really underscores the necessity to cross the One Huge, Lovely Invoice as a result of we’d like extra detention amenities throughout the nation,” Leavitt mentioned.
A supply conversant in the planning tells ABC it’s going to price Florida $450 million a 12 months, and officers say a few of that cash will likely be reimbursed from FEMA’s Shelter and Companies Program.
Leavitt described the ability’s distant location in her briefing on Monday.
“There’s just one street main in, and the one means out is a one-way flight,” she mentioned. “It’s remoted and surrounded by harmful wildlife and unforgiving terrain. The ability can have as much as 5,000 beds to accommodate, course of and deport felony unlawful aliens.”
President Donald Trump waves as he walks to Air Power one earlier than departing from Joint Andrews Airforce base, Maryland, July 1, 2025.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
“That is an environment friendly and low-cost means to assist perform the most important mass deportation marketing campaign in American historical past,” Leavitt added.
When requested concerning the distant and harmful location, Leavitt mentioned that it was a function of the ability to assist stop detainees from escaping.
“Effectively look, when you have got unlawful murderers and rapists and heinous criminals in a detention facility surrounded by alligators, sure, I do assume that is a deterrent for them to attempt to escape,” she mentioned. “We do know that a few of these unlawful criminals have escaped from different detention amenities, like one in New Jersey, which I do know was not too long ago reported on. So, in fact, we need to preserve the American individuals protected, and we need to take away these public security threats from our streets, and we need to successfully detain them as finest as we will.”
Florida Legal professional Basic James Uthmeier posted on X that the ability is a “one cease store” to hold out Trump’s mass deportation agenda, claiming the situation saves cash on safety because it’s surrounded by harmful animals.
Demonstrators maintain indicators as they protest the development of an immigrant dentention heart, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” within the Everglades close to Ochopee, Florida, June 28, 2025.
Giorgio Viera/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
“You needn’t make investments that a lot within the perimeter. Folks get out, there’s not a lot ready for them aside from alligators and pythons. Nowhere to go, nowhere to cover,” Uthmeier posted.
Amongst officers who will be a part of Trump on the facility are Division of Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Congressman Byron Donalds.
In an announcement launched Monday, Noem mentioned, “Alligator Alcatraz, and different amenities prefer it, will give us the potential to lock up a number of the worst scumbags who entered our nation below the earlier administration. We’ll broaden amenities and mattress area in simply days, due to our partnership with Florida. Make America protected once more.”
DeSantis touted the ability final week as “as protected and safe as you might be.”
Environmental teams are suing to cease building, alleging the federal government violated the Endangered Species Act by constructing on protected land.
Protesters gathered alongside the freeway that cuts by way of the Everglades to display on Saturday. They included environmental activists and Native Individuals advocating for his or her ancestral homelands. Others demonstrated towards the remedy of migrants.
