President Donald Trump mentioned Tuesday he wish to see services like the brand new so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” migrant detention heart in Florida‘s Everglades in different states.
“Effectively, I believe wish to see them in lots of states. Actually, many states,” the president mentioned. “And, , in some unspecified time in the future, they could morph right into a system.”
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 power 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 brand new heart may very well be a brand new customary for immigration services within the U.S. regardless of criticism for its harsh situations, Trump mentioned, “It may be.”
President President Donald Trump and Secretary of Homeland Safety Kristi Noem tour a migrant detention heart, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” positioned on the website of the Dade-Collier Coaching and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Fla., July 1, 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
“I imply, you do not at all times have land so lovely and so safe. They’ve loads of bodyguards and loads of cops which might be within the type of alligators. You don’t should pay them a lot however I would not need to run by means of the Everglades for lengthy. It should preserve individuals the place they’re purported to be. This can be a essential factor,” he mentioned.
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 services and efforts to enact Trump’s mass deportation coverage which might 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 believe his journey to this detention facility really underscores the necessity to go the One Large, Lovely Invoice as a result of we’d like extra detention services throughout the nation,” Leavitt mentioned.
A supply acquainted with the planning tells ABC it would value Florida $450 million a yr, and officers say a few of that cash might be reimbursed from FEMA’s Shelter and Providers Program.
Leavitt described the ability’s distant location in her briefing on Monday.
“There’s just one highway 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 power can have as much as 5,000 beds to deal with, course of and deport prison unlawful aliens.”
President President Donald Trump and Secretary of Homeland Safety Kristi Noem tour a migrant detention heart, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” positioned on the website of the Dade-Collier Coaching and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Fla., July 1, 2025.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
“That is an environment friendly and low-cost means to assist perform the biggest mass deportation marketing campaign in American historical past,” Leavitt added.
When requested concerning the distant and harmful location, Leavitt mentioned that it was a characteristic of the ability to assist forestall 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 suppose 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 services, like one in New Jersey, which I do know was lately 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 Lawyer Common 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 money on security because it’s surrounded by harmful animals.
President President Donald Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and Secretary of Homeland Safety Kristi Noem tour a migrant detention heart, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” positioned on the website of the Dade-Collier Coaching and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Fla., July 1, 2025.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
“You need not make investments that a lot within the perimeter. Individuals get out, there’s not a lot ready for them apart from alligators and pythons. Nowhere to go, nowhere to cover,” Uthmeier posted.
Amongst officers who will be 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 services prefer it, will give us the potential to lock up a few of the worst scumbags who entered our nation underneath the earlier administration. We are going to broaden services 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 could be.”
Environmental teams are suing to cease development, alleging the federal government violated the Endangered Species Act by constructing on protected land.
Protesters gathered alongside the freeway that cuts by means of the Everglades to reveal on Saturday. They included environmental activists and Native Individuals advocating for his or her ancestral homelands. Others demonstrated in opposition to the remedy of migrants.
