‘It's a concentration camp': Everything we know about Trump's new ‘Alligator Alcatraz' in the Florida Everglades

Yahoo

5 days ago

The name given by Donald Trump and his allies to Florida's new barebones immigrant detention camp is ghoulish enough: 'Alligator Alcatraz'.
Critics, however, argue that it is nothing less than a concentration camp on American soil, designed to round up disfavored minorities even if they have committed no crimes.
Rapidly built and opened in the space of just two weeks on a remote and rarely used airstrip in Florida's reptile-rich Everglades, the camp is intended to hold up to 5,000 people arrested by U.S. immigration authorities while they await deportation.
Numerous detainees, their families, and their lawyers have already alleged inhumane and unsafe conditions, including maggoty food and overflowing toilets.
Polling suggests that almost half of all Americans disapprove of the facility, with only 26 per cent of independent voters being in favor.
So what exactly is Alligator Alcatraz, and what will happen to the so far 700-odd people detained there?
Surrounded by alligators and pythons
Long before his 2024 election victory, Donald Trump and his team were drawing up plans to deport millions of people every year — and hold them in vast new detention camps while their cases were processed.
Alligator Alcatraz is a preview of that potential future. Rather than being the federal government, it's actually a project of Florida's Republican governor — and former Trump election rival — Ron DeSantis, who invoked emergency powers to seize the land last month.
Who funded this remains unclear. DeSantis has said he will be reimbursed by the federal government, and Trump's homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, has said it will be "largely funded" by FEMA.
Work progresses on a new migrant detention facility dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz," at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility in the Florida Everglades, Friday, July 4, 2025, in Ochopee, Fla. (AP)
Yet in court filings, the U.S. Justice Department has claimed that "not implemented, authorized, directed, or funded Florida's temporary detention center" — despite the fact that immigration enforcement is handled by the federal government.
Regardless, Republicans have made no secret of their rationale. "You don't need to invest that much in the perimeter," claimed Florida's attorney general James Uthmeier. "If people get out, there's not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons."
And yes, 'Alligator Alcatraz' is now its official name. It's even emblazoned on road signs that lead to the facility.
'Packed into cages'
The facility's construction is extremely basic — and its conditions are allegedly brutal.
Detainees are kept in metal cages, with dozens of people packed into each one, housed inside gigantic heavy-duty tents in the sweltering heat. Even the staff appear to be based in temporary prefab huts and mobile trailers parked nearby.
Detainees and their families have reported worm-infested food, routine medical neglect, unreliable air conditioning, and inadequate toilets that overflow and cover the floor with feces.
Government officials have adamantly disputed these accusations, but have provided few details and have denied access to the media. In total, there are currently around 3,000 beds.
'They have no way to bathe, no way to wash their mouths, the toilet overflows and the floor is flooded with pee and poop,' said the wife of one 35-year-old Cuban detainee. "They eat once a day and have two minutes to eat. The meals have worms."
At one point, detainees "all went on a hunger strike" in protest against the conditions, she said, adding that her calls with him were interrupted every three minutes by an automated voice saying the conversation was recorded. Lawyers have also reported being refused access and prevented from speaking to their clients.
Leamsy 'La Figura' Izquierdo, a Cuban reggaeton artist arrested last week in Miami-Dade County for assault with a deadly weapon and transferred to Alligator Alcatraz, likewise told CBS News: 'There's no water to take a bath, it's been four days since I've taken a bath.
"They only brought a meal once a day and it has maggots. They never take off the lights for 24 hours. The mosquitoes are as big as elephants." Another detainee said guards had taken away his Bible and told him that "here there is no right to religion".
Democratic legislators who visited the camp say they're deeply concerned. While a bipartisan group was allowed to visit on July 12 — as required by state law — they were given a "sanitized" tour of still-empty areas with no detainees.
Even then, their review was harsh. 'They are essentially packed into cages, wall-to-wall humans," said Florida congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. 'This place needs to be shut the hell down. They're abusing human beings."
A spokesperson for the Florida state government said, "The reporting on the conditions in the facility is completely false. The facility meets all required standards and is in good working order."
Who is detained there?
In early July, Donald Trump claimed that the Florida facility would "handle the most menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet" — and said he wants to see similar facilities built in "many states".
But what we know of Alligator Alcatraz's inmates conflicts with his description. According to The Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times, only one-third of the 700 people currently being held there have any criminal conviction whatsoever.
Workers install a sign reading "Alligator Alcatraz" at the entrance to a new migrant detention facility at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility, as large fencing panels are unloaded from a nearby flatbed, Thursday, July 3, 2025, in Ochopee, Fla. (AP)
250 detainees have been judged to have broken immigration law, which is a civil offence and not a criminal one.
One detainee, who described the conditions as potentially "a form of torture", told CBS: "A lot of us have our residency documents and we don't understand why we're here."
That fits the general pattern of Trump's detentions so far. Despite promising to prioritize "the worst of the worst", data suggests that only 8 percent of the estimated 185,000 people detained by ICE between October 1, 2024 and May 31, 2025 had been convicted of a serious crime.
One-third of detainees had some kind of criminal conviction, but among that group, 75 percent had only committed low-level crimes such as traffic offenses.
How long detainees will stay at Alligator Alcatraz is unclear, but immigration court proceedings can take months or years, and the Trump administration has said it will deny bail en masse. Hence, it could be a long time for some.
Is it a concentration camp?
Some critics believe so. Among them is the journalist Andrea Pitzer, author of One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps, who made her case in a recent op-ed for MSNBC.
"This facility's purpose fits the classic model: mass civilian detention without real trials targeting vulnerable groups for political gain based on ethnicity, race, religion or political affiliation rather than for crimes committed," Pitzer wrote.
"We're still in the early stages of this arc, but... the history of this kind of detention underlines that it would be a mistake to think the current cruelties are the endpoint. America is likely just getting started."
While the term 'concentration camp' is most associated with the Nazis, such camps have been widely used by numerous nations, including the U.K., the U.S., Spain, and the Soviet Union.
Immigration lawyer Raul A. Reyes likewise argued in The Los Angeles Times that Alligator Alcatraz is a "national disgrace" that "will place detainees in life-threatening conditions".
He further claimed the facility "appears intentionally designed to inflict suffering on detainees", citing supporters' "gleeful" attitude to the idea of federal detainees being eaten by alligators.
The Department of Homeland Security has promoted the project with AI-generated images of alligators wearing ICE hats, while the President himself has joked that detainees would need to learn how to escape the beasts — prompting laughter from Fox News hosts.
The Florida Republican Party, and Uthmeier himself, are even selling Alligator Alcatraz merchandise, including baseball caps, water bottles, and beer koozies.
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