Trump tours 'Alligator Alcatraz' as he pushes for more deportations

New Straits Times

4 days ago

OCHOPEE, Florida: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday toured a remote migrant detention centre in the Florida Everglades dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" as his Republican allies advanced a sweeping spending bill that could ramp up deportations.
The facility sits some 37 miles (60 km) from Miami in a vast subtropical wetland teeming with alligators, crocodiles and pythons—fearsome imagery the White House has leveraged to show its determination to purge migrants it says were wrongly allowed to stay in the country under former President Joe Biden's administration.
Trump praised the facility's rapid construction as he scanned rows of dozens of empty bunk beds enclosed in cages and warned of the threatening conditions surrounding the compound.
"I looked outside and that's not a place I want to go hiking anytime soon," Trump said at a roundtable event following his tour. "We're surrounded by miles of treacherous swampland, and the only way out is really deportation."
The complex, located at the Miami-Dade Collier Training and Transition Airport in southern Florida, is estimated to cost US$450 million annually and could house approximately 5,000 people, officials estimate. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has said he will deploy 100 National Guard troops to the site, with detainees expected to arrive as early as Wednesday.
To promote the facility's opening, US officials shared images on social media of alligators wearing Immigration and Customs Enforcement hats. The Florida Republican Party is also marketing gator-themed clothing and beer koozies.
Two environmental groups filed a legal motion last week seeking to block further construction, arguing that the project violates federal, state and local environmental laws. The lawsuit, filed in US district court, claims the development will lead to increased traffic, artificial lighting and the use of large power generators—all of which would "significantly impact" the environment.
The organisations—Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity—said the site is located at or near the Big Cypress National Preserve, a protected habitat for endangered Florida panthers and other species.
"Putting aside whether intractable political gridlock over immigration reform constitutes an 'emergency,' it does not give licence to the state and federal governments to simply disregard the laws that govern federal projects affecting environmentally sensitive lands, essential waterways, national parks and preserves, and endangered species," the groups wrote.
Local leaders, including representatives of the nearby Miccosukee and Seminole tribes, have voiced strong objections to the facility's construction, which has also drawn crowds of demonstrators.
Trump dismissed environmental concerns on Tuesday, stating in wide-ranging remarks that the region's wildlife would likely outlive humanity. He added that the detention centre was a model for what he hoped to replicate nationwide.
"We'd like to see them in many states," Trump said.
HARDLINE POLICIES
The Republican-controlled US Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that allocates tens of billions of dollars for immigration enforcement, alongside several of the president's tax-and-spending priorities.
Trump has pushed aggressively to have the legislation enacted before the July 4 Independence Day holiday. The measure still requires final approval from the House of Representatives.
The Republican president, who resides in Florida, has made hardline immigration policies a central tenet of his political platform for over a decade. One in eight US voters in the 2024 election have cited immigration as their top concern.
However, Trump's pledges to deport up to 1 million people annually face significant obstacles, including protests from affected communities, legal challenges, employer reliance on low-cost labour, and a federal budget constrained by chronic deficits.
Lawyers representing some detained migrants have challenged the legality of mass deportations and criticised conditions in temporary holding centres.
According to government data, the number of people in federal immigration detention rose sharply to 56,000 by 15 June, up from 39,000 when Trump took office. His administration has been actively seeking additional space to accommodate the growing population.
The White House maintains that detentions are necessary for public safety, citing the presence of criminal records among some detainees. However, statistics from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement reveal an eight-fold increase in arrests of individuals charged solely with immigration violations.
Trump has expressed admiration for the expansive, isolated prisons built by El Salvador and has used the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba to detain some migrants—best known for housing foreign terrorism suspects following the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States.
US Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat whose district borders the Florida facility, criticised the project in a statement, saying: "Trump and Republicans badly need this wasteful, dangerous, mass misery distraction" to divert attention from a bill that would strip state residents of their health care benefits.