Florida to detain migrants in new Everglades facility dubbed ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

A view of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, the planned site of 'Alligator Alcatraz.' (WPTV via CNN Newsource)

In the interest of carrying out more of U.S. President Donald Trump’s promised mass deportations, officials in Florida this week started construction on a migrant detention facility they’re billing as “efficient” and “low-cost” – because mother nature will provide much of the security.

“Alligator Alcatraz,” as Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier calls it, is being erected on a little-used airstrip in the Everglades, the vast expanse of marshes and swamps that covers much of southern Florida and hosts a dizzying array of wildlife, from hundreds of bird species to bobcats, panthers, crocodiles and alligators.

“You don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter. If people get out, there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons,” Uthmeier said in an announcement video that casts the facility as “the one-stop shop to carry out President Trump’s mass deportation agenda” and features slow-motion footage of snapping alligators.

Construction of the new Florida facility comes just weeks after Trump said he had directed federal agencies to reopen the original Alcatraz – a prison famously known for being virtually inescapable because of its location on a small island in the Pacific Ocean off San Francisco. And in his first term, Trump floated the idea of fortifying the US southern border with a water-filled trench infested with alligators, the New York Times reported (Trump denied it).

Building “Alligator Alcatraz” means a temporary repurposing of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, which Uthmeier describes as “an old, virtually abandoned airport facility right in the middle of the Everglades.”

The overall site is about 39 square miles and contains a runway of about 11,000 feet. It sits 36 miles west of the Miami business district and just 6 miles north of Everglades National Park.

“Alligator Alcatraz” should be ready to host detainees the first week of July, Uthmeier said Monday in an interview with controversial pro-Trump, right-wing commentator Benny Johnson. Construction should be fast, Uthmeier said, as the facility will consist of “light infrastructure” like heavy-duty tents and trailers.

The National Guard will also be on site to help run the facility, according to Uthmeier, who said he met with Trump administration border czar Tom Homan on Sunday. Uthmeier said the federal government has approved Florida’s broader plan to have another 5,000 detention center beds in place by early July, across “a couple of facilities, including what I call Alligator Alcatraz.”

The attorney general promised fair legal proceedings for detainees held at the facility, telling Johnson, “We’ll give them the due process that all these courts say they need.”

Florida’s in-progress temporary facility in the Everglades will supplement what Trump officials have said is limited capacity at detention centers around the country, as the White House continues to push authorities to make at least 3,000 immigration-related arrests per day. Many detainees have so far been sent to Guantanamo Bay or deported to El Salvador’s CECOT mega prison.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem praised the state’s “cost-effective and innovative” plan on X Monday, writing, “We will expand facilities and bed space in just days, thanks to our partnership with Florida.”

Noem said the new Florida detention facilities will be funded “in large part” by the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Shelter and Services Program. During the Biden administration, funds from the program were used towards providing food, shelter and care for migrants released from DHS custody.

CNN reached out to DHS, the Florida attorney general’s office and the Miami-Dade County mayor for further details.

Plans to build the Everglades facility have been met with fierce criticism from environmental advocacy groups like the Friends of the Everglades, who on Sunday organized a protest against the detention center.

In a public letter addressed to Uthmeier and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the group said the piece of land where the center would be built is “critical to the future of the Everglades.”

“Don’t open the door to development in one of America’s most fragile and iconic ecosystems, surrounded by Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve,” the group wrote.

Friends of the Everglades was founded to oppose construction on the very same spot in 1969, Eve Samples, the group’s executive director, told CNN affiliate WPTV.

At that time, the same piece of land was supposed to house the Everglades Jetport, one of the biggest, most ambitious airport projects of that time. The plan was abandoned after just one runway was built, over concerns it would “destroy the South Florida ecosystem,” according to a 1969 report.

“It really strikes you as a clueless idea that was off the cuff,” Samples said of “Alligator Alcatraz.”

“It’s really ironic that the state attorney general is characterizing this as a largely abandoned site. It was abandoned because the people of Florida, including Friends of the Everglades, rose up to stop it back in 1969, 1970,” she told WPTV.