The first group of immigrants should now be in place at the new detention center deep in the Florida Everglades dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz," the state's attorney general said. "Alligator Alcatraz will be checking in hundreds of criminal illegal aliens tonight," Florida Republican Attorney General James Uthmeier said Wednesday on X. "Next stop: back to where they came from." It wasn't immediately clear where they were coming from, reports the AP.
The facility, at an airport used for training, will have a capacity of about 3,000 detainees when fully operational, according to Gov. Ron DeSantis. The center was built in eight days over 10 miles of Everglades. It features more than 200 security cameras, 28,000-plus feet of barbed wire, and 400 security personnel. Immigrants who are arrested by Florida law enforcement officers under the federal government's 287(g) program will be taken to the facility, according to a Trump administration official. The program is led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and allows police officers to interrogate immigrants and detain them for potential deportation.
The facility is expected to be operating with 500 to 1,000 beds within days. It is then supposed to be expanded in 500-bed increments until it has an estimated 5,000 beds by early July. Environmental groups and Native American tribes have protested the center, contending it is a threat to the fragile Everglades, would be cruel to detainees because of heat and mosquitoes, and is on land tribes consider sacred. It's also located at a place prone to heavy rains, which caused some flooding in the tents Tuesday during a visit by President Trump. State officials say the complex can withstand a Category 2 hurricane, which packs winds of between 96mph and 110mph, and that contractors worked overnight to shore up areas where flooding occurred.
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DeSantis and other state officials say locating the facility in the rugged and remote Florida Everglades is meant as a deterrent, and naming it after the notorious federal prison of Alcatraz is meant to send a message. It's another sign of how the Trump administration and its allies are relying on scare tactics to try to persuade people in the country illegally to leave voluntarily.
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