Trump heads to "Alligator Alcatraz" to tout new Florida migrant lockup
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President Trump heads back to Florida on Tuesday to tour "Alligator Alcatraz," a controversial new detention facility in the Everglades to incarcerate those who immigrated illegally or face deportation.
Why it matters: The $450 million 1,000-bed facility of trailers and tents is the largest of its kind and solidifies Florida's position as the top state cooperating with Trump's immigration crackdown.
- Florida already leads the nation in cross-deputizing local police to enforce federal immigration laws, a priority of Gov. Ron DeSantis.
- The idea and name of "Alligator Alcatraz" is the brainchild of Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, who was appointed by DeSantis after serving as his chief of staff.
The intrigue: Uthmeier hatched the plan for Alligator Alcatraz in near-secret and worked with DeSantis's office and the Department of Homeland Security to avoid any opposition before it was too late for significant opposition to materialize.
- DHS has blessed the project with $450 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency's "Shelter and Services Program," which President Biden had tapped to help house migrants in hotels to welcome them to the United States.
- Now the Trump administration is using that program to detain and help deport them.
- The site is owned by Miami-Dade County, but DeSantis is developing the site and essentially taking it over by exercising emergency authority he granted himself in 2023 to deal with a flood of migrants who came during the Biden administration.
Zoom in: Alligator Alcatraz is surrounded by wetlands of the Big Cypress National Preserve next to Everglades National Park and is almost dead center between the East and West coasts of Florida.
- The nearly 25,000-acre site is not pristine wetlands, however. It's a one-runway airplane facility called the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport.
- The runway was supposed to be one of six in what was to be the world's largest airport at the time in the 1960s. That project, the Everglades Jetport, was abandoned amid protests from the nascent environmental movement at the time.
Zoom out: Environmentalists oppose the project because of the impacts on wildlife (such as the endangered Florida panther), and development of the site runs contrary to desires to get rid of the jetport.
- Immigration advocates and Democrats oppose Alligator Alcatraz because it's touted as deliberately cruel to detainees.
- The state and federal governments say environmental impacts will be minimal and the state has to put detainees somewhere as more migrants are being rounded up and are increasingly overcrowding federal immigration lockups like Krome Detention Center.
