REPORT: Bondi visits Alcatraz amid plans to reopen infamous prison, Democrats fume

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From ABC7 News: U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum are in the Bay Area and visited Alcatraz Thursday morning as part of the controversial plan to reopen the federal penitentiary.

Back in May, President Trump started talking about reopening the site as a federal prison.

Congress is expected to introduce a bill to end environmental protections for Alcatraz and take away the National Park Service’s control of the site.

The plan has been getting pushback since the Trump Administration announced it, with critics calling it too expensive and a political stunt.

The report explains that the old prison, which is now a tourist attraction, currently generates about $60 million in annual revenue. Some are estimating it could cost as much as a quarter of a billion dollars to refurbish the property in order to reopen it as a prison.

Alcatraz first opened in July 1984, and closed in March 1963. The National Park Service then turned the island into a museum, and a ferry boats depart every 30 minutes from the bay to the island.

“A great morning at Alcatraz with @SecretaryBurgum. Under President Trump, we are Making America Safe Again,” Bondi announced, posting photos from the trip.

Burgum also shared photos and wrote, “Spent the day on Alcatraz Island, a @NatlParkService site, to start the work to renovate and reopen the site to house the most dangerous criminals and illegals. This administration is restoring safety, justice, and order to our streets. @Interior & @TheJusticeDept are following a directive by @POTUS to help lead that mission.”

“Alcatraz is the brand known around the world for being effective” at housing prisoners, Burgum told reporters. “Its original use was a prison, and so part of this would be to test the feasibility about returning it back to its original use.”

Democrats are erupting over the idea. California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office sneered in a post on X, “Pam Bondi will reopen Alcatraz the same day Trump lets her release the Epstein files. So… never.”

San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie fumed, “There is no realistic plan for Alcatraz to host anyone other than visitors. If the federal government has billions of dollars to spend in San Francisco, we could use that funding to keep our streets safe and clean and help our economy recover. Alcatraz is a beloved destination bringing visitors and economic activity to San Francisco every year. Our city is on the rise—let’s keep it that way.”

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who lives in San Francisco, also raged against the proposal to reopen Alcatraz in a blistering statement. She wrote:

With stiff competition, the planned announcement to reopen Alcatraz as a federal penitentiary is the Trump Administration’s stupidest initiative yet. It should concern us all that clearly the only intellectual resources the Administration has drawn upon for this foolish notion are decades-old fictional Hollywood movies.

Make no mistake: this stupidity is a diversionary tactic to draw attention away from this Administration’s cruelest actions yet in their Big, Ugly Law, which takes away food from children and rips health care from millions to give tax breaks to billionaires.

It remains to be seen how this Administration could possibly afford to spend billions to convert and maintain Alcatraz as a prison when they are already adding trillions of dollars to the national debt with their sinful law.

Should reason not prevail and Republicans bring this absurdity before the Congress, Democrats will use every parliamentary and budgetary tactic available to stop the lunacy.

READ MORE from ABC7 News.

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