Trump Admin. Builds ’Alligator Alcatraz’ Detention Center for Undocumented Immigrants

By Staff, Agencies

The United States government has built a controversial detention center for undocumented immigrants and deportees in a remote region west of Miami, Florida.

The new facility, named "Alligator Alcatraz," was visited by President Donald Trump and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem on Tuesday.

The facility, erected deep in the Florida Everglades, has drawn national attention for rapid construction and symbolism.

Environmental groups have protested against the facility, considering it a threat to the fragile Everglades system as it sits in protected swampland.

Critics also argue it would be cruel to detainees because of the heat, frequent heavy rains and flooding, humidity, pythons, mosquitoes, and alligators in the area.

Native Americans have also protested against the detention center, saying it is set up on the land that local tribes consider sacred.

However, US officials showed their support, sharing a meme photo of a detention center ringed with barbed wire and “guarded” by alligators wearing hats labeled “ICE”, which stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

While touring the facility in the Florida Everglades, Trump said it will soon hold the most "menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet."

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said locating the facility with the capacity to hold 5,000 deportees in the rugged and remote Florida Everglades is meant as a deterrent, and naming it after the notorious federal prison of Alcatraz, an island fortress known for its brutal conditions, is meant to send a message.

It’s another sign of how the Trump administration and its allies are relying on scare tactics to try to encourage people residing in the country illegally to self-deport and leave the US voluntarily.

Alligator Alcatraz is located in Big Cypress National Preserve in Ochopee, southern Florida, 72 kilometers west of Miami on the Atlantic coastal plain.

The Florida attorney general said the facility will begin processing hundreds of "criminal illegal aliens" on Wednesday night.

“Alligator Alcatraz will be checking in hundreds of criminal illegal aliens tonight,” Florida Republican Attorney General James Uthmeier said on the X social media platform.

“Next stop: back to where they came from,” the official added.

It wasn’t immediately clear when the detainees would arrive or where they were coming from. But officials said they were being brought to the facility on buses.

“Alligator Alcatraz” is expected to cost $450 million to operate for a single year, according to one Department of Homeland Security official.