Latest news with #detentioncentre
France 24
16-07-2025
- Politics
- France 24
No, incinerators were not installed at 'Alligator Alcatraz'
04:59 From the show As criticism of the Trump administration's detention centre "Alligator Alcatraz" mounts, a rumour has been circulating online that incinerators have been installed at the site for malicious purposes. But these rumours are false, as Charlotte Hughes explains in this edition of Truth or Fake.
Sky News
08-07-2025
- Climate
- Sky News
The 'Alligator Alcatraz' detention centre was built in eight days - but problems are emerging
Videos and satellite imagery show how quickly Donald Trump's detention centre in Florida has been constructed - as experts suggest the design of the site is flawed and will compromise the safety of people being held there. Sky News' Data and Forensics team has verified footage posted on social media that shows water covering the ground near electricity cables during a storm as the first detainees were due to arrive. The Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM), run by Governor Ron DeSantis, posted on X that detainees were at the site on 3 July just before 1pm local time (6pm UK time). Donald Trump held a tour of the facility on 1 July that took journalists around "Alligator Alcatraz". Its name is a reference to both the local reptile population and the former maximum-security Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in San Francisco Bay, California. The tour showed the rapid construction of the centre, designed to accommodate up to 3,000 detainees. The purpose of the site is to house individuals detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). James Uthmeier, Florida's attorney general, posted on X: "And in just a week, Alligator Alcatraz was built." Political commentator Benny Johnson, who was on the tour, praised the eight-day turnaround. "I don't think anyone realises how impressive Alligator Alcatraz is," he said. Amid those positive comments, videos emerged highlighting flooding in the centre, with electricity cables covered with water on the day of the tour. The flooding was said to have been caused by a small storm. However, the state department claims the structures and tents can withstand category two hurricanes, reaching 110mph winds. FDEM spokesperson Stephanie Hartman wrote in a statement that "vendors had tightened any seams at the base of the structures that allowed water to come in during the storm". She described the water intrusion as minimal. Steff Gaulter, a Sky News meteorologist, said: "In the last 10 years, we've seen 13 hurricanes that have hit Florida. Seven of them have been category three or higher. "As well as needing to know how strong these storms are as they come, it's also very unpredictable, their track can change at the last minute." The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) have said structures in risk category two - which Alligator Alcatraz falls under - need to withstand 121mph wind gusts. If the housing tents exceed 300 occupants per tent, the guidelines go up to 167mph. Ms Gaulter explained: "You don't necessarily need a hurricane in order to see a gust of wind over 100mph. In the lowest category of hurricane, category one, the range of winds would be between 74mph and 95mph. But even in that category, you can easily get a gust of wind up to 120mph." Dr Patrick McSharry, Professor at Carnegie Mellon University and former head of catastrophe risk financing at Oxford University, told Sky News that in a hurricane "there's no way that a tent is going to be in any way something that you would advise someone to be in". "It's more the case of having a plan in place that can be mobilised really fast to get people out of that dangerous situation." The site is also located in a hurricane-prone region as defined by ASCE. Discussing building regulations, Dr McSharry said: "We're dealing here potentially with human lives so it's an even more sensitive calculation I think that needs to be made." Sky News put these concerns to Ron DeSantis and the Florida state department, but did not receive responses. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Sky News: "Alligator Alcatraz is a state-of-the-art facility that will play a critical role in fulfilling the president's promise to get the worst criminal illegal aliens out of America as fast as possible. "President Trump is grateful to partner with [Homeland] Secretary [Kristi] Noem and Ron DeSantis on this important project." Satellite imagery obtained by Sky News shows the rapid construction of the centre, which was formerly Dade-Collier Training Airport. Five days after the centre was announced by Florida's attorney general James Uthmeier, more than 60 new trailers can be seen on the right-hand side of the runway. Satellite imagery obtained by Sky News also shows that from 24 June to the opening date on 1 July, more than seven large housing tents were put up at the site. The site is reportedly set to open with 3,000 beds, expanding to 5,000 by early July. It is also reported that the site will cost an estimated $450m (£330m) per year to operate, with a bed costing $245 (£180) per day. The bill is reported to be covered by the state of Florida, which plans to get money back from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Tessa Petit, director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, told Sky News: "It was constructed too [quickly]. This is a sign that we're seeing a disaster [waiting to] happen as we look at it. "Usual detention centres come up with, you know, their bricks and mortar, right? This is not bricks and mortar. This is just tents and mobile homes that are assembled on an airstrip." "There's a detention of immigrants in a place that has been in the past ravaged by hurricanes and we're getting into hurricane season," Ms Petit added. She is concerned that medical support and sanitary provisions, like a sewage system, will not have been properly installed. "You can't build a sewage system that can sustain 3,000 people in eight days. You can't dig in the Everglades. So, what are going be the additional sanitary conditions?" she said. There are also sustainability concerns about the site. The Centre for Biological Diversity has filed a lawsuit in US District Court to protect the Florida Everglades. They state it is "a reckless plan to build a massive detention centre for people caught in immigration raids". Tania Galloni, an attorney working with the Centre for Biological Diversity, stated the proposed plan "has not undergone the environmental review required by federal law, and the public has had no chance to provide feedback".
Sky News
08-07-2025
- Climate
- Sky News
Eight-day build of 'Alligator Alcatraz' sparks safety concerns - as hurricane season looms
Videos and satellite imagery show how quickly Donald Trump's detention centre in Florida has been constructed - as experts suggest the design of the site is flawed and will compromise the safety of people being held there. Sky News' Data and Forensics team has verified footage posted on social media that shows water covering the ground near electricity cables during a storm as the first detainees were due to arrive. The Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM), run by Governor Ron DeSantis, posted on X that detainees were at the site on 3 July just before 1pm local time (6pm UK time). Donald Trump held a tour of the facility on 1 July that took journalists around "Alligator Alcatraz". Its name is a reference to both the local reptile population and the former maximum-security Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in San Francisco Bay, California. The tour showed the rapid construction of the centre, designed to accommodate up to 3,000 detainees. The purpose of the site is to house individuals detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). James Uthmeier, Florida's attorney general, posted on X: "And in just a week, Alligator Alcatraz was built." Political commentator Benny Johnson, who was on the tour, praised the eight-day turnaround. "I don't think anyone realises how impressive Alligator Alcatraz is," he said. Amid those positive comments, videos emerged highlighting flooding in the centre, with electricity cables covered with water on the day of the tour. The flooding was said to have been caused by a small storm. However, the state department claims the structures and tents can withstand category two hurricanes, reaching 110mph winds. FDEM spokesperson Stephanie Hartman wrote in a statement that "vendors had tightened any seams at the base of the structures that allowed water to come in during the storm". She described the water intrusion as minimal. Steff Gaulter, a Sky News meteorologist, said: "In the last 10 years, we've seen 13 hurricanes that have hit Florida. Seven of them have been category three or higher. "As well as needing to know how strong these storms are as they come, it's also very unpredictable, their track can change at the last minute." The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) have said structures in risk category two - which Alligator Alcatraz falls under - need to withstand 121mph wind gusts. If the housing tents exceed 300 occupants per tent, the guidelines go up to 167mph. Ms Gaulter explained: "You don't necessarily need a hurricane in order to see a gust of wind over 100mph. In the lowest category of hurricane, category one, the range of winds would be between 74mph and 95mph. But even in that category, you can easily get a gust of wind up to 120mph." Dr Patrick McSharry, Professor at Carnegie Mellon University and former head of catastrophe risk financing at Oxford University, told Sky News that in a hurricane "there's no way that a tent is going to be in any way something that you would advise someone to be in". "It's more the case of having a plan in place that can be mobilised really fast to get people out of that dangerous situation." The site is also located in a hurricane-prone region as defined by ASCE. Discussing building regulations, Dr McSharry said: "We're dealing here potentially with human lives so it's an even more sensitive calculation I think that needs to be made." Sky News put these concerns to Ron DeSantis and the Florida state department, but did not receive responses. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Sky News: "Alligator Alcatraz is a state-of-the-art facility that will play a critical role in fulfilling the president's promise to get the worst criminal illegal aliens out of America as fast as possible. "President Trump is grateful to partner with [Homeland] Secretary [Kristi] Noem and Ron DeSantis on this important project." Satellite imagery obtained by Sky News shows the rapid construction of the centre, which was formerly Dade-Collier Training Airport. Five days after the centre was announced by Florida's attorney general James Uthmeier, more than 60 new trailers can be seen on the right-hand side of the runway. Satellite imagery obtained by Sky News also shows that from 24 June to the opening date on 1 July, more than seven large housing tents were put up at the site. The site is reportedly set to open with 3,000 beds, expanding to 5,000 by early July. It is also reported that the site will cost an estimated $450m (£330m) per year to operate, with a bed costing $245 (£180) per day. The bill is reported to be covered by the state of Florida, which plans to get money back from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Tessa Petit, director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, told Sky News: "It was constructed too [quickly]. This is a sign that we're seeing a disaster [waiting to] happen as we look at it. "Usual detention centres come up with, you know, their bricks and mortar, right? This is not bricks and mortar. This is just tents and mobile homes that are assembled on an airstrip." "There's a detention of immigrants in a place that has been in the past ravaged by hurricanes and we're getting into hurricane season," Ms Petit added. She is concerned that medical support and sanitary provisions, like a sewage system, will not have been properly installed. "You can't build a sewage system that can sustain 3,000 people in eight days. You can't dig in the Everglades. So, what are going be the additional sanitary conditions?" she said. There are also sustainability concerns about the site. The Centre for Biological Diversity has filed a lawsuit in US District Court to protect the Florida Everglades. They state it is "a reckless plan to build a massive detention centre for people caught in immigration raids". Tania Galloni, an attorney working with the Centre for Biological Diversity, stated the proposed plan "has not undergone the environmental review required by federal law, and the public has had no chance to provide feedback".
BBC News
01-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Trump visits 'Alligator Alcatraz' migrant detention centre in Florida Everglades
President Donald Trump on Tuesday visited the new Florida detention centre dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz", where around 1,000 migrants are expected to be held as soon as next month, surveying the next step in his crackdown on illegal immigration. While touring the facility in the Florida Everglades, Trump said it will soon house the most "menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet". Alligators, crocodiles and pythons in the surrounding wetlands are expected to keep detainees from escaping the centre, which is being built on an old state lawmakers, the local mayor and neighbours oppose its construction, saying that it could hurt an important ecosystem. "We're surrounded by miles of treacherous swampland and the only way out is, really, deportation," Trump said on the administration plans to build similar facilities, and the president said the new detention centre was the most impactful step that the US could take to "fully reverse the Biden migration invasion".It will cost about $450m (£332m) a year to run and funding will mostly come from a temporary shelter and services programme that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had used for undocumented immigrants, according to Homeland Security Secretary Krisit Noem, who joined the presidential other Trump allies, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Representative Byron Donalds of Kentucky, were also on the tour. The move to build a new centre comes as human rights organisations warn detentions centres are becoming overcrowded. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) currently has a record 59,000 detainees in custody nationwide, 140% above its capacity, according to data obtained by CBS, the BBC's news the former prison Alcatraz in the middle of the San Francisco Bay, which Trump has said he wants to reopen, the facility will be hard to will be situated on the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, a public airport around 58km (36 miles) from Miami, and an area deemed an ecologically important subtropical wetland. Florida's Attorney General James Uthmeier has described the site as a "virtually abandoned facility".But local residents who live near the site, like Betty Osceola, a member of the Miccosukee Native American community, have told the BBC they are worried that the temporary facility will become permanent. "I have serious concerns about the environmental damage," she said, as she stood next to a canal where an alligator was warn the damage to area wetlands and endangered species could undo the state's massive effort to restore the Everglades, which has cost Florida billions of dollars. It is home to endangered species such as the Florida panther and the West Indian Pautler Bennett, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, described the Everglades as "the most sensitive place in Florida", making development of a detention centre there "risky". "Any other project that would have been proposed in the Everglades would have gone through an intense environmental approval process, I'm convinced this one didn't get that because it's a political stunt," Ms Bennett told the BBC. It has been estimated that the detention centre could be up and running in 30 to 60 days and could hold an estimated 1,000 people."This is an efficient and low-cost way to help carry out the largest mass deportation campaign in American history," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said ahead of Trump's visit. .Cecilia Barría and Walter Fojo contributed to this report
Telegraph
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Alligator Alcatraz: ICE to detain migrants in middle of remote Florida swamp
In the fight to secure the US border, immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) has deployed an unexpected new line of defence. 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. — 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.'
