Alligator Alcatraz: ICE to detain migrants in middle of remote Florida swamp
Construction has begun on an 1,000-bed detention centre for undocumented migrants in the middle of the Florida everglades national park that state officials have nicknamed 'Alligator Alcatraz'.
The facility, built on the site of an abandoned runway, is designed to temporarily house migrants and has drawn comparisons to the infamous island prison because of the thousands of alligators and pythons living in the flooded grasslands that surround it.
The detention centre is the brainchild of James Uthmeier, the state attorney general and Trump ally who last week shared a video suggesting the area's dangerous wildlife will function as natural security.
'Alligator Alcatraz: the one-stop shop to carry out president Trump's mass deportation agenda,' Mr Uthmeier said.
'People get out, there's not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons. Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide.'
Alligator Alcatraz: the one-stop shop to carry out President Trump's mass deportation agenda. pic.twitter.com/96um2IXE7U
— Attorney General James Uthmeier (@AGJamesUthmeier) June 19, 2025
Located at Dade-Collier training and transition airport, a former landing strip west of Miami, the 39-square-mile-square Everglades detention centre is one of several major new sites in Florida designed to house upwards of 5,000 detainees, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Touted as a 'cost-effective' way to support mass deportations, the new site follows proposals by the Trump administration to reopen the original Alcatraz prison in San Francisco and efforts to send illegal migrants to Guantanamo Bay.
Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said the facility will be funded in large part by the federal emergency management agency's shelter and services programme, which is designed to provide emergency housing for undocumented migrants.
According to The Hill, a temporary site could open within days, while the facility is projected to cost around $450m a year once it is fully operational.
Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, has backed the project, with his office releasing a statement saying he 'will facilitate the federal government in enforcing immigration law'.
'Florida will continue to lead on immigration enforcement,' a spokesman for Mr DeSantis said.
The new facility has drawn the ire of immigrant rights groups and environmentalists, who reacted furiously to the prospect of large tents being pitched in one of the country's most prized areas of natural beauty.
The national park is home to dozens of threatened species including manatees, American crocodiles, American flamingo and wood storks.
On Sunday, more than 300 protesters flocked to the Everglades to demonstrate against the new centre.
The decision to build the site comes after the Trump administration's efforts to send migrants to Guantanamo Bay and to a migrant detention centre in Texas were thwarted.
A contract for a vast tent city at the Fort Bliss military base in Texas was terminated in April, while courts have blocked attempts to send undocumented migrants to the Guantanamo military base in Cuba.
In March, Mr Trump proposed reopening the original Alcatraz prison located in San Francisco bay in order to deter 'vicious' criminals.
Addressing plans to build a detention centre in Florida, Ms Noem said: 'Under president Trump's leadership, we are working at turbo speed on cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people's mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens.
'We will expand facilities and bed space in just days, thanks to our partnership with Florida.'
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