Grim look inside Trump's ‘Alligator Alcatraz' facility
Video captured during a tour led by the US President shows rows upon rows of empty bunk beds lined up inside the controversial facility, each enclosed within cages built from chain-link fencing.
It is located around 60km from Miami, in a vast subtropical wetland full of alligators, crocodiles, and pythons.
'I looked outside, and that's not a place I want to go hiking anytime soon,' Mr Trump told reporters after his tour.
'We're surrounded by miles of treacherous swampland, and the only way out is really deportation.'
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The complex in southern Florida at the Miami-Dade Collier Training and Transition Airport is estimated to cost $US450 million a year ($AU684 million) to operate, with the first migrants arriving as early as Wednesday (local time).
Mr Trump raved about the quick construction of the new compound, saying, 'It might be as good as the real Alcatraz'.
'It's a little controversial, but I couldn't care less,' he added.
Mr Trump was joined by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis when he told reporters he'd like to see more facilities like 'Alligator Alcatraz' opened in 'more states'. In a tour led by the US President, rows upon rows of empty bunk beds enclosed in chain-link fencing can be seen. Credit: Evan Vucci / AP
In promoting the opening of the facility, the White House posted on social media images of alligators wearing Immigration and Customs Enforcement hats.
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Mr DeSantis has described the push to build the facility as Florida's continued effort to align the state with the Trump Administration's immigration crackdown.
Inside the facility there is reportedly a recreation zone, which is inside a large tent with air conditioning and artificial grass, according to NBC who attended a tour.
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US media outlets on the tour were told that a law library would be installed but this was not shown to reporters.
There has been significant pushback from Democrats, immigration advocates and Florida lawmakers who see the project as inhumane and destructive to the Everglades ecosystem.
They have fiercely objected to detaining people in the middle of a swamp surrounded by dangerous animals in the blistering Florida heat.
'The impacts this would have to the Everglades ecosystem could be devastating,' Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said.
Mark Fleming, the Associate Director of Federal Litigation at the National Immigrant Justice Centre, also expressed concern about the facility.
'The fact that the administration and its allies would even consider such a huge temporary facility on such a short timeline, with no obvious plan for how to adequately staff medical and other necessary services, in the middle of the Florida summer heat is demonstrative of their callous disregard for the health and safety of the human beings they intend to imprison there,' he said.
'It simply shocks the conscience.'
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