President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem flew to Florida on Tuesday to be in attendance for the opening of an immigrant detention center in the middle of the Everglades.
Located on a 39-square-mile airstrip in the middle of the Everglades and surrounded by wetlands inhabited by alligators, pythons, and crocodiles, the remote location is what most appeals to officials. The facility currently has 1,000 beds, but Florida officials say it could accommodate as many as 3,000. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier nicknamed the facility, which was built on an unused tarmac in the massive swamp, “Alligator Alcatraz.” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the detention center will welcome its first arrivals on Wednesday.
“They have a lot of bodyguards and a lot of cops in the form of alligators, you don’t have to pay them so much,” Trump said of the slapdash holding facility.
On his visit Tuesday, Trump praised Florida’s proactive response to his mass deportation agenda.
“We’d like to see them in many states. At some point, they might morph into a system,” Trump said.
Critics call the facility “dehumanizing,” noting that the facility is made up of hundreds of bunk beds behind chain-link fences under tents in an area that regularly experiences temperatures over 100 in the summer.
DeSantis told Fox News last week that the detention center is a “one-stop shop” for detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants, saying that the site’s airplane runway will allow for “efficient” deportations. He also has a plan to fast-track immigration hearings.
“We’re offering up our National Guard and other folks in Florida to be deputized to be immigration judges,” DeSantis said.
“Alligator Alcatraz” will cost about $450 million annually to run, with funding mostly coming from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“If you wait and we bring you to this facility, you don’t ever get to come back to America. You don’t get the chance to come back and be an American again,” Noem said in a warning to migrants.
While the Florida GOP is already selling “Alligator Alcatraz” branded merchandise, the facility is facing lawsuits from opposition groups. Democrats, immigration advocates, conservationists and Indigenous tribes in the area have all condemned the center.
“This scheme is not only cruel, it threatens the Everglades ecosystem that state and federal taxpayers have spent billions to protect,” Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, said.
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