Florida Official Proposes New Immigrant Detention Center in Everglades Dubbed ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

Florida’s attorney general, James Uthmeier, is proposing to construct a large-scale immigrant detention center in the Florida Everglades that he has nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz.”The proposed site is on a sprawling abandoned airport in the middle of the Everglades National Park in southern Florida. The attorney general said the facility could house up to 1,000 “criminal aliens,” expedite immigration cases, and streamline deportations directly from the property via the existing airstrip.“The governor tasked state leaders to identify places for new, temporary detention facilities. I think this is the best one, as I call it, alligator Alcatraz. This 30-square mile area is completely surrounded by the Everglades and presents an efficient, low-cost opportunity to build a temporary detention facility because you don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter,” Mr. Uthmeier said in a post on X. “People get out, there’s not much waiting for them, other than alligators and pythons. Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. Within just 30 to 60 days after we begin construction, it could be up and running and could house as many as 1,000 criminal aliens,” he said.The attorney general also told Fox Business that military attorneys trained as immigration judges would operate on-site to expedite legal proceedings and reduce bottlenecks in immigration case processing.“Florida’s been leading on immigration enforcement, supporting the Trump administration and ICE efforts to detain and deport criminal aliens,” he said. The idea is in its early stages, awaiting approval from local, state, and federal agencies. “This would be the state’s largest immigration detention facility,” Mr. Uthmeier said, highlighting the relief it would bring to overcrowded county jails and federal facilities grappling with the influx of suspected illegal aliens.The Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami has been severely overcrowded with illegal aliens for months. In March, an average of nearly 1,500 people were packed inside the detention areas each day, two and a half times the daily average during President Biden’s tenure. At one point in April, more than 100 individuals gathered in the recreation yard, forming the letters “SOS” and “libre,” Spanish for “free.” The proposal comes as part of a broader immigration crackdown spearheaded by the Trump administration, with ICE raids occurring across the country. In a briefing on Thursday, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said the president has made dramatic progress on border security since he took office.“According to newly released numbers, last month the border patrol saw a 93 percent decrease of illegal aliens crossing the southwest border between ports of entry from May 2024 under Joe Biden, when they encountered more than 117,000 illegal aliens,” she said.“In the month of May under the Trump administration, zero illegal aliens were released into our country by border patrol,” she said. “The efforts by President Trump to stop the illegal immigrant invasion and secure the border in this short amount of time represent one of the greatest achievements by a presidential administration in the history of our great country.”

Florida Official Proposes New Immigrant Detention Center in Everglades Dubbed ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

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