From Newsweek: Florida has begun constructing a detention facility on the site of an abandoned runway, designed to temporarily house migrants detained during President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The idea is the brainchild of Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, who dubbed it “Alligator Alcatraz” because of its location within the Everglades National Park and the thousands of alligators and pythons that surround the site’s perimeter.
Uthmeier, a stalwart supporter of Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, has argued that the location of the project is tailor-made for a secure detention facility. The Florida attorney general maintains that this will be necessary to cope with overflows from the state’s facilities, which face overcrowding as a result of the administration’s aggressive deportation efforts.
Alligator Alcatraz is set to be located at Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, an idle landing strip west of Miami. Satellite images from Google Earth show the location of the 39-square-mile site.
According to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the facility will be funded “in large part” by the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s shelter and services program.
Opponents aren’t happy. Immigrant rights groups say the facility may lack sufficient oversight. Environmentalists say it could damage the surrounding wildlife.
“Due to the location of this parcel in a critical area, the conveyance of this parcel requires considerable review and due diligence,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava wrote in a letter Monday to Kevin Guthrie, the state’s emergency management director under Gov. Ron DeSantis.
It “is also imperative that we fully understand the scope and scale of the proposed use of the site and what will be developed, as the impacts to the Everglades ecosystem could be devastating.”
But Uthmeier championed the site, saying the “virtually abandoned airport facility right in the middle of the Everglades” can “house as many as 1,000 criminal aliens.”
“Florida’s been leading on immigration enforcement, supporting the Trump administration and ICE’s efforts to detain and deport criminal aliens,” he said.
“The government tasked state leaders to identify places for new temporary detention facilities. I think this is the best one. As I call it, ‘alligator Alcatraz,'” he added.
Alligator Alcatraz: the one-stop shop to carry out President Trump’s mass deportation agenda. pic.twitter.com/96um2IXE7U
— Attorney General James Uthmeier (@AGJamesUthmeier) June 19, 2025
BREAKING: Dept. of Homeland Security Greenlights Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Plan for Massive Everglades Detention Facilitypic.twitter.com/nVGMG1A99r
— TaraBull (@TaraBull808) June 23, 2025
Oh shit…
“EVERGLADES, Fla. (CBS12) — A new detention facility nestled in the heart of the Everglades and surrounded by predators, named “Alligator Alcatraz,” was approved by the federal government on Monday morning.
“If you’re detained there, there’s no way in, no way out,”… pic.twitter.com/dr1qN3KazV— NativeTexan (@NativeTexan_17) June 24, 2025
NO WHERE TO RUN: Florida official proposes novel idea for massive new immigrant detention facility
RAED MORE AT NEWSWEEK.COM.
