Migrants would need to know ‘how to run away from an alligator', says Trump
The facility, assembled on a remote airstrip with tents and trailers that are normally used after a natural disaster, has been given the nickname Alligator Alcatraz, a moniker that has alarmed immigrant activists but appeals to the Republican president's aggressive approach to deportations.
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'This is not a nice business,' he said as he left the White House in the morning. Then he joked that 'we're going to teach them how to run away from an alligator if they escape prison'.
Donald Trump boards Air Force One (Cliff Owen/AP)
'Don't run in a straight line. Run like this,' he said, as he moved his hand in a zigzag motion. 'And you know what? Your chances go up about 1%.'
Before his arrival, local authorities were positioned by the entrance of the airstrip. Media vans and other vehicles were parked along the road lined by cypress trees.
Protesters have often gathered near the facility, which is about 50 miles west of Miami and could house 5,000 detainees.
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They have criticised the potential impact on a delicate ecosystem and say Mr Trump is trying to send a cruel message to immigrants — while some Native American leaders have also opposed construction, saying the land is sacred.
But a key selling point for the Trump administration is the site's remoteness — and the fact that it is in swampland filled with mosquitoes, pythons and alligators.
The White House hopes that conveys a message to detainees and the rest of the world that repercussions will be severe if US immigration laws are not followed.
'There's only one road leading in, and the only way out is a one-way flight,' press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday. 'It is isolated, and it is surrounded by dangerous wildlife and unforgiving terrain.'
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The isolated Everglades airfield west of Miami (Office of Attorney General James Uthmeier/AP)
During his first term in 2019, Mr Trump denied reports that he floated the idea of building a moat filled with alligators at the Mexican border. 'I may be tough on border security, but not that tough,' he said at the time.
In his second term, he has suggested that his administration could move to reopen Alcatraz, the notorious island prison off San Francisco.
The White House has similarly promoted the political shock value of sending some immigrants awaiting deportation from the US to a detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and others to a megaprison in El Salvador.
Some of the ideas have been impractical. For example, transforming Alcatraz from a tourist attraction into a prison would be very costly, and Guantanamo Bay is being used less often than administration officials originally envisioned.
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However, the new detention centre in the Everglades came together very quickly. David Jolly, a former Republican who is now running for governor as a Democrat, called the facility a 'callous political stunt'.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detainees are generally held for reasons like entering the country illegally or overstaying a visa. They are either waiting for Ice to put them on the next flight or bus ride home, or fighting against removal in immigration court.
Construction work at the facility dubbed Alligator Alcatraz (WSVN/AP)
If an immigrant is accused of or has committed a violent crime, he or she is tried and held in state or federal criminal jurisdiction, separate from the immigration system. In those cases, they may be transferred to Ice for deportation after completing their criminal sentences.
State officials are spearheading construction of the Florida facility, but much of the cost is being covered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is best known for responding to hurricanes and other natural disasters.
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Florida attorney general James Uthmeier, who has been credited as the architect of the Everglades plan, first presented the proposal with a slickly produced video with graphics featuring red-eyed alligators and a hard rock soundtrack.
The Department of Homeland Security posted an image of alligators wearing Ice hats and sitting in front of a fenced-in compound ringed with barbed wire.
The Florida Republican Party has used the facility to sell branded T-shirts and beverage container sleeves. Florida governor Ron DeSantis suggested on Monday that the facility would be open and 'ready for business' by the time Mr Trump arrives.
The governor, who challenged Mr Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has also played up the fact that the site will be hard to escape from.
'They ain't going anywhere once they're there, unless you want them to go somewhere, because good luck getting to civilisation,' he said. 'So the security is amazing.'
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Daily Mail
8 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
'Don't come here': Greece's immigration minister warns North Africans
The Greek immigration minister does not mince his words. He may be new to the job but his message to the millions of young men waiting in North Africa to come to his country for a life in Europe is clear: 'Don't come here. We will put you in jail or send you back home.' In an exclusive interview with the Mail, Thanos Plevris said: 'The Greeks, like the rest of Europe, want to help real refugees, but we will not be taken for fools. It is the end of the fairy tale that those coming to Greece and Europe in incredible numbers are all women and children. They are mainly men aged between 18 and 30 who are economic migrants. We are not a hotel any more.' 'Many are from safe countries, such as Egypt, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Now we are telling them that if you sail in illegally by boat to Greece, do not expect asylum but get ready for five years in jail or a ticket home instead.' Greece is on the frontline of Europe's out-of-control migration crisis that, as Britons know well, has reached northern France where trafficking gangs are using fleets of small boats to send tens of thousands of migrants to Dover. Greece, on the other side of the continent, has its own relentless wave of newcomers. This year, at least 10,000 migrants have reached its biggest island, Crete, from lawless Libya a few hundred miles away across the Mediterranean Sea. In the first week of this month alone, just after Mr Plevris was appointed immigration minister, a surge of 4,000 arrived illegally on the island, which is struggling to cope. The coastguard and police are holding the uninvited foreigners in emergency camps in empty warehouses where they get a chilly welcome, basic rations and sleep on concrete floors. As we witnessed, they are young men growing dangerously angry while incarcerated against their will in the stifling summer heat. 'Our big problem today is with Libya and who they are sending over,' the plain-speaking and unapologetic Mr Plevris told me as he promised to stifle the migration flow for ever. 'Libya is using big vessels carrying 200, even 300, people. Of all those who have arrived, 85 per cent are male, and the majority of them are young. They are using Greece to enter Europe illegally for a new life. If we just continue to sit and watch, it will never end. Three million migrants are today massing in Libya. Now I plan to deter them from setting off for here.' Ten days ago, the Greek parliament passed a new law to help Mr Plevris get his wish. It suspended all asylum applications from those arriving illegally from North Africa for 'at least three months' due to the 'extraordinary' migration emergency. The European Union has sided with Athens, saying the Greek crisis is 'exceptional'. Under the legislation, due to be introduced within days, most of the illegal arrivals will have two choices: a five-year prison spell or deportation to their home country, at Greece's expense. 'We will no longer tolerate an invasion from North Africa,' Mr Plevris said. Migrant camps with prison-like accommodation are being prepared on the mainland to house future arrivals. 'Our immigration ministry is not a hotel service,' Mr Plevris added in a headline-grabbing television soundbite after the law won overwhelming support in parliament. He is also reviewing the 'current situation' where migrants are placed, sometimes for years, in welcoming reception centres with 'menu-style' meals and state benefits, while it is decided if they are genuine refugees or not. Greece's revolutionary agenda is backed by the country's prime minister. A key aide said: 'This is an urgent situation. We are taking extraordinary steps that are difficult and strict. Our government can no longer accept the migration flows from North Africa. People there need to think twice before they pay a large sum of money [to traffickers] to come to this country.' It is anybody's guess if the thousands of young men who have reached Crete in the new surge realise what a bleak future lies ahead. But in the few days since the law was voted in, no boats have arrived from Libya. When the Mail visited two of Crete's emergency holding camps, we were allowed to walk inside among the migrants but not permitted to speak to them. 'Be careful,' I was warned by an armed police officer guarding 400 migrants at a camp on the outskirts of Chania, two hours from the Crete capital of Heraklion. 'These are dangerous people. They all want something from you, even just a cigarette, and they get angry if you don't hand it over.' Inside the warehouse camp, the smell of unwashed men and urine made my eyes smart. As we walked in, the migrants shouted for help, putting up their hands to show ten fingers, the number of days they have been incarcerated here. There was a tinderbox atmosphere and the conditions were unpalatable, to say the least. Some migrants were lying on mattresses, resorting to sharing because there are so few. For the unlucky ones, it was a concrete floor with a T-shirt for a pillow. 'They all sit with their own nationalities, the Egyptians together, the Palestinians together, and so on,' said one female guard at the door of the warehouse. 'They are very difficult to control. There are so few of us, just five, and so many of them. We are tired, they are tired. It is not a safe situation.' One pitiful boy, who whispers to me that he is an Egyptian and 14, is barefoot and wearing just underpants and a shredded T-shirt. In one corner, standing alone, is a tall figure with dark hair and his neck covered in the red and white scarf of Palestine. 'He will say he is Egyptian, if he is asked,' a guard told me. 'But he has come from Gaza. He won't have an identity document because he will have destroyed it before reaching Greece. It makes our job of finding out who these people are, if they are bad or good, more difficult.' The police guards, just three men and two women, were under stress. If they open by a crack the giant metal doors to the warehouse to get in and out, throngs of men run to the entrance to try to reach the fresh air and escape the stench for a minute or two. 'No, no, no,' shout the inmates in one crescendo of furious male voices as the doors are snapped shut. Nearer Heraklion, in the mid-Crete town of Rethymno, is a second warehouse camp. If anything, the atmosphere was more tense still. It is on rough land overlooking the sea and a beach, and had nearly 180 men inside when we visited. Inside, we saw a gruff-looking police officer using a metal baton to control the migrants. One Egyptian who argued with him, after dilly-dallying for a few minutes on a visit to the latrine block in the yard, was chased and hit on the arm by the officer. 'You can show my stick on your photographs,' the officer said to me, 'but not my face.' He added: 'These men are disappointed, angry, and increasingly volatile. They will remember me. They expected to get a free pass into Europe because the Libyan boat traffickers told them that. Now we are keeping them here. They are not getting what they wanted or hoped for. It is difficult to make them stay calm. You must be wary.' It is at the Rethymno camp that we saw migrants being deported, first to Heraklion port and then to mainland Greece, in an operation resembling the movement of prisoners. During the afternoon, they were brought out of the warehouse in six nationality groups and made to sit on the ground in the blazing sun for half an hour to wait for buses to take them to the ferry for Athens where migrant camps have already been toughened up. Some held cardboard from torn-up boxes over their heads to protect themselves from the sun as they sat in the dust. Nearly all were barefoot, some bare-chested, and each carried a blue plastic bag of possessions plus a bottle of water. We were told that the migrants and the buses would remain in a closed deck area of the ferry away from fee-paying passengers for the night crossing. It was an operation with little compassion for the migrants, but the country has clearly run out of patience. Mr Plevris, who belongs to the Right-wing faction of Greece's ruling and increasingly conservative New Democracy party, said: 'Our prime minister has warned for years of the problems with immigration. 'We want to support refugees, but we believe it is important for our society that we only take those who want to be part of Europe.' He pointed out how many of the illegal migrants want to 'transfer' their own cultures and religious beliefs to Europe. 'They want to go on living by their own rules and they want us to accept that. But we will no longer do so,' he added. Mr Plevris said the European asylum system was skewed. It encourages migrants who cheat by throwing away their passports (to avoid showing they come from safe countries) or lying about their age to boost their chances of being allowed to stay. Egyptians wanting to escape military service destroy identity papers to disguise the fact they come from a country listed as safe by the United Nations and European Union. If the words of Mr Plevris, 48, sound like common sense today, his critics have dredged up the fact that he was a political firebrand when first elected to parliament in 2007 as a member of a now defunct hard-Right anti-immigration party. In 2011, he made a much criticised speech in parliament, which is still on YouTube. He said: 'In my opinion, the immigration issue can be solved in two ways. The first way is border security, which cannot exist if there are no deaths [to the migrants]. 'The second is that we must understand the logic of disincentives. We must tell the migrants when you come here you will have no social benefits, you will not be able to drink, you will not be able to go to hospital. [The migrant] must tell others in Pakistan that he is having a worse time in Greece than back home. Unless he sees a life of hell and not a paradise, he will come.' Controversial though his speech was, his appointment is popular with ordinary Greeks today. As I travelled in Athens to interview Mr Plevris, the taxi driver recognised the address. 'Ah. Are you going to see the new minister,' he asked. 'I would like to send him a message from people like me. Tell him on migrants that enough is enough. No more must come in. We all feel the same. We wish him good luck with his new law.'
The Guardian
14 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘Everything here is just better': Ellen DeGeneres confirms she moved to the UK because of Donald Trump
Ellen DeGeneres has confirmed that she moved to the UK because of Donald Trump, saying, 'Everything here is just better'. At a conversation event on Sunday at Cheltenham's Everyman theatre – the comedian's first public appearance since leaving the US – broadcaster Richard Bacon asked DeGeneres if it was true Trump had spurred her decision to relocate. 'Yes,' she said. 'We got here the day before the election and woke up to lots of texts from our friends with crying emojis, and I was like, 'He got in.' And we're like, 'We're staying here.'' DeGeneres moved with her wife, Portia de Rossi, to a house in the Cotswolds in 2024 after her long-running talkshow ended and she embarked on a 'final comedy tour' around the US. At the time, her move was described as permanent. A source told industry publication The Wrap that DeGeneres was 'never coming back' and was motivated by Trump, though DeGeneres herself had not confirmed the reasoning until now. DeGeneres told Bacon that her new home was 'beautiful'. 'It's clean,' she raved. 'Everything here is just better – the way animals are treated, people are polite. I just love it here.' She also expressed concern for LGBTQ+ rights in the US, hinting that she and De Rossi may get married again in the UK. 'The Baptist Church in America is trying to reverse gay marriage,' DeGeneres said, referencing an overwhelming vote by southern Baptists in June to endorse a resolution that would seek to overturn same-sex marriage in the US. 'They're trying to literally stop it from happening in the future and possibly reverse it,' DeGeneres continued. 'Portia and I are already looking into it, and if they do that, we're going to get married here.' Later in the talk, she added, 'I wish we were at a place where it was not scary for people to be who they are. I wish that we lived in a society where everybody could accept other people and their differences. So until we're there, I think there's a hard place to say we have huge progress.' At the event, DeGeneres also addressed the scandal that had dogged the end of her daytime talkshow Ellen after 19 seasons in 2022. In 2020, former employees accused DeGeneres of fostering a toxic work environment. She apologised to her staff and to the audience, and an internal investigation by parent company Warner led to the departure of three executives – but the show never quite recovered and ended amid declining ratings. DeGeneres had previously commented on the controversy in her 2024 US tour, saying she was 'kicked out of show business' for being 'mean'. On Sunday, she made similar comments on stage. 'No matter what, any article that came up, it was like, 'She's mean',' DeGeneres said. 'How do I deal with this without sounding like a victim or 'poor me' or complaining? But I wanted to address it.' She said she had been misconstrued. 'I'm a direct person, and I'm very blunt, and I guess sometimes that means that ... I'm mean?' DeGeneres concluded that it was 'certainly an unpleasant way to end' her talkshow.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Nvidia CEO's China charm offensive underscores rock star status in key market
BEIJING/SHANGHAI, July 21 (Reuters) - Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab CEO Jensen Huang is no stranger to Beijing, but his most recent visit, his third to China this year, cemented his rock star status in the country, where fans mingled freely with the AI titan on the streets of the capital. It was a rare sight for a chief executive of one of the world's most powerful companies to roam around Beijing, engage in wide-ranging interviews, take selfies with excited fans and even sign leather jackets - a signature clothing item of the billionaire - for his devoted followers. The tycoon at the helm of the world's most valuable company arrived in Beijing for a supply chain expo last week just days after meeting U.S. President Donald Trump and announced the AI giant would once again be able to sell its H20 chips in China following a U.S. ban in April on national security concerns. Huang's company is caught in the cross-hairs of a U.S.-China trade war that threatens to upend supply chains as both countries battle for global dominance in AI and other cutting-edge technologies, threatening Nvidia's $17 billion China business. While Huang appears to be navigating a delicate tightrope between Beijing and Washington well, the company remains subject to the ups and downs of Sino-U.S. tensions, analysts said. "Jensen Huang's visit aimed to demonstrate Nvidia's commitment to the Chinese market," said Lian Jye Su, a chief analyst at tech research firm Omdia. "However, this commitment must be balanced against potential U.S. government concerns about deepening ties with China." Huang described AI models from Chinese firms Deepseek, Alibaba ( opens new tab and Tencent ( opens new tab as "world class" and his official engagements included a "wonderful" meeting with Chinese trade tsar and Vice Premier He Lifeng and a face-to-face with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao. Demand for H20 chips surged in China following the launch of DeepSeek models in January. "Nvidia will still need to see the tide clearly and ride it at the right time to maximize the available benefits. But good for the company, I think it has a CEO who's very good at doing that," said Tilly Zhang, a technology analyst with Gavekal Dragonomics. Charlie Chai, an analyst with 86Research, said Nvidia's China market share was likely to slide in years to come. "The Chinese government will actively help or subsidize domestic rivals that can one day stand up to and, at least in some use cases, replace high-end Nvidia chips." In an unusual sight for a global CEO visiting China, videos posted on social media platforms showed Huang wandering the streets of Beijing, drink in hand, signing notebooks and posing for selfies. In response to questions about how Washington would likely receive his latest visit to Beijing, the CEO said: "I told President Trump and his cabinet that I was coming to China. Told him about my trip here, and he said, 'Have a great trip'." At the opening of the China International Supply Chain Expo last Wednesday, Huang - who was born in Taiwan but moved to the U.S. at the age of nine - traded his signature leather jacket for a black, traditional Chinese-style jacket and referred to himself in a speech as "Chinese". In his Expo speech, as well as in later comments, Huang was effusive in his praise for Chinese tech giants' capabilities in bringing technology into applications, describing China's supply chain as "vast". Even arch rival Huawei Technologies ( a firm that Nvidia is locked in a strategic and intensifying battle for AI chip dominance with, was lauded. "I think the fact of the matter is, anyone who discounts Huawei and anyone who discounts China's manufacturing capability is deeply naive. This is a formidable company," Huang told reporters.
