
Inside 'Alligator Alcatraz', the airport turned Trump migrant detention facility
President Donald Trump has toured a new migrant detention center in the Florida Everglades dubbed 'Alligator Alcatraz' and hailed it as 'beautiful' and 'so secure'.
Trump on Tuesday visited the makeshift facility at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee which received federal approval last week to house thousands of undocumented immigrants.
The president said that 'some of the most vicious people on the planet' will be held at the detention center, which takes its name from the alligator-filled environment and the notorious former maximum security prison on Alcatraz Island in California.
'We're surrounded by miles of treacherous swampland, and the only way out is really deportation,' said Trump, while walking around the outside and inside of the facility that had bunk beds behind chain link fencing.
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'Worst of the worst always first and I think it's great government what we've done.'
Trump was accompanied by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who issued a warning to migrants.
'They don't have to come here, if they self-deport and go home, they can come back legally,' she said.
'But if you wait and we bring you to this facility, you don't ever get to come back to America. You don't get the chance to come back and be an American again.'
President Donald Trump (left), Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem (second from left) and others toured the inside of 'Alligator Alcatraz' on Tuesday (Picture: AP)
What is 'Alligator Alcatraz?'
'Alligator Alcatraz' was coined by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, who shared a video about it on X (formerly Twitter) a week-and-a-half ago and called it 'the one-stop shop to carry out President Trump's mass deportation agenda'.
It has 3,000 beds and was built in eight days after DeSantis authorized its construction. The Trump administration said it will eventually hold up to 5,000 people.
The facility has tent structures to house migrants and will cost $450million to operate annually, with the federal government fully reimbursing the state.
It is slated to become the biggest migrant detention facility in the country.
President Donald Trump (second from left), Governor Ron DeSantis (middle), Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem (second from right) and others walk outside a new migrant detention center at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility (Picture: AP)
Where is it located?
'Alligator Alcatraz' is located on a 39-square-mile airstrip in the Big Cypress National Preserve wetlands adjacent to Everglades National Park.
It is in the heart of the Everglades, which is home to alligators, pythons, mosquitos and other dangerous wildlife.
Before departing the White House to tour the facility, Trump advised prospective escapees to run from the reptiles in a zigzag manner.
'Don't run in a straight line; run like this,' he said, waving his hand. 'You know what, your chances go up by 1%. Not a good thing.'
A drone view shows the construction site of the state's 'Alligator Alcatraz' detention center at Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport (Picture: Reuters)
What did it used to be?
The facility is at the site of a former airport.
DeSantis said the facility was constructed with the airport's concrete infrastructure, temporary structures like beds, and is equipped with medical care and food preparation operations.
The 11,000-foot runway at the airport has recently been used for training, but officials indicated that it could soon be used for deportation flights.
'So you'll be able to bring people in, they'll get processed, they have an order of removal, then they can be queued and the federal government can fly — right on the runway, right there, you literally drive them 2,000 feet, put them on a plane and then they're gone,' DeSantis said.
President Donald Trump (left), Governor Ron DeSantis (middle) and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem (right), talk to the media as they tour 'Alligator Alcatraz' (Picture: AP)
How has Florida reacted?
The state attorney general and governor have both pushed the facility and fast-tracked it for the Trump administration.
DeSantis said that Florida National Guard members will be deputized as immigration judges so that migrants can have hearings within 48 hours.
'We'll have people here in this facility that can make (legal decisions)… Someone has a notice to appear — (President Joe) Biden would tell him to come back in three years… here, you'll be able to appear like a day or two,' said the governor.
'So we want to cut through that so that we have an efficient operation between Florida and DHS to get the removal of these illegals done.'
Activists attend the 'Stop Alligator Alcatraz' protest in front of the entrance of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Florida, on June 28 (Picture: EPA)
What concerns are there around the facility?
Democrats and environmentalists have already come out in opposition of 'Alligator Alcatraz'.
On Saturday, they rallied along Highway 41 to protest its construction.
They held signs with statements like, 'No Alligator Alcatraz', 'Another stupid plan to abuse people & the Everglades', and 'Out of Florida'.
Two environmental groups claiming the facility will disturb and damage the Everglades ecosystem on Friday filed a lawsuit against agencies including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Florida's Division of Emergency Management.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
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The Independent
28 minutes ago
- The Independent
Alligator Alcatraz will get the thumbs up from Trump's Maga supporters
In Ancient Rome, a popular form of entertainment for the masses were the venationes, in which criminals, captives and sometimes gladiators fought battles with wild beasts. Lions, tigers, bears, wolves, even elephants and ostriches would be used in such gruesome displays. On special occasions, vast amphitheatres would be filled with water and real boats used to stage mock naval battles, and with hippopotamuses and crocodiles thrown in for a bit of added jeopardy. The Coliseum itself would be used for such a naumachia, with fleets of vessels battling it out. You can imagine the glee in crowds with which some poor unfortunate would lose his footing and be consumed by a hungry croc, screaming in agony, blood and giblets everywhere. Such elaborate games were one method by which an emperor could show off his wealth and power, at the same time as giving the people he ruled something to take their minds off their more mundane problems, with some free grain to show he cared. 'Bread and circuses', as the ruling strategy was called. Now, I'm no Mary Beard, and I'm not saying this is what Donald Trump is doing in the Florida Everglades at the moment, but the performative cruelty is more than a little reminiscent of a Roman emperor seeking ways to entertain himself and his people. His new facility for detaining deportees, 'Alligator Alcatraz' comes from an imagination every bit as sadistic as any in the ancient world. Indeed, it is far grander than anything Nero or Claudius ever dreamt up. The 39-square-mile site was grabbed with imperial ease using emergency powers and will house some 5,000 detainees in tents and cages. It's a swampland with temperatures reaching 38 degrees on a regular, sustained basis. America's new model penitentiary will be surrounded by alligators, Burmese pythons and swarms of mosquitos. Escape means near-certain death. If the heat doesn't get you, the animals will. What's more, Trump likes it that way. He thinks it's amusing. 'We're going to teach them how to run away from an alligator if they escape prison. 'Don't run in a straight line, run like this…'' (Trump's tiny hand makes a zig-zag motion) 'And, you know what? Your chances go up about one per cent.' Human despair and suffering. Hilarious. Trump's house of horrors also goes one better than the Roman emperors, because there's now Alligator Alcatraz merch – baseball caps, T-shirts and, who knows, latex alligator head masks – all to celebrate the terror of people whose only crime was to seek a better life and are being deported without due process. On his tour of Alligator Alcatraz, Trump – again, like the most nonchalant Roman tyrant – said he could start deporting criminals who had been naturalised as Americans: 'It's controversial, but I couldn't care less.' All the guy needs now is a toga. They probably don't need to, but the entire site could be fitted with CCTV, plus a whole squadron of drones with cameras and night-vision capability. It'll also have those swamp patrol baits with the huge propellers on the back. They could have cameras, too. All you need, in other words, for a new reality TV show. Any escapee could be filmed trying to find freedom before getting crushed to death by a python, say, and it can all be packaged up for a weekly slot for Fox News, with clips rights going to Truth Social: 'Escape from Alligator Alcatraz (Or Not)'. The shame of all this isn't that what Trump is doing is horrid and senseless, or that it's just another expensive stunt: the capacity is too small to make much difference to what Karoline Leavitt, consul to emperor Trump, calls 'the largest mass deportation campaign in American history'. We're used to Trump doing stuff like that. The sobering thing is that it is precisely what the president's base desires. It's what they voted for. When people say that it allows us to treat human beings that way, the Maga people reply that they're fine with it. If you say it's fascist, then they're happy to take a slice of that, with Donald's special dressings on top. A good half or so of the American electorate decided to put this guy in power, not once but twice, and almost three times – even after they discovered what a monster he was. Actually, because they discovered what a monster he was. They are cool with it – just as they aren't bothered about the rest of the world, what it thinks or what goes on there. As long as they get their bread and circuses, Trump can give a thumbs down to human rights as much as he likes. Don't be surprised if they turn out to be unreliable allies. They're busy enjoying the Alligator Alcatraz show.


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