U.S. President Donald Trump toured the informally named “Alligator Alcatraz” on Tuesday, where he celebrated — and even joked about — the harsh conditions of the controversial immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades.
The jail, which has been condemned by critics as an inhumane makeshift prison camp, was praised by the president as a model for future nationwide facilities aimed at accelerating deportations, including possibly deporting U.S. citizens.
Trump, joined by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, said the facility will soon “handle the most menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet.”
The president said the moniker is “very appropriate because I looked outside and that’s not a place I want to go hiking anytime soon.”
The president praised the new compound, with its rows of bunk beds in enclosed cages, saying, “It might be as good as the real Alcatraz.”
“It’s a little controversial, but I couldn’t care less.”
Before arriving, Trump joked about migrants being held there, saying: “We’re going to teach them how to run away from an alligator if they escape prison. Don’t run in a straight line. Run like this,” he said, moving his hand in a zigzag motion.
“And you know what? Your chances go up about one per cent.”
The facility is located at an isolated airfield about 72 kilometres west of downtown Miami and is surrounded by swamps filled with mosquitoes, pythons and alligators. Supporters say the references to the notorious Alcatraz federal prison and the harshness of the conditions at the facility are meant to be a deterrent.
“There’s really nowhere to go,” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said in an interview with conservative media commentator Benny Johnson. “If you’re housed there, if you’re detained there, there’s no way in, no way out.”
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During the tour, Trump shared his desire to see similar centres established in “really, many states” across the U.S. He also raised the prospect of deporting U.S. citizens, like ones who “knife you when you’re walking down the street.”
“They’re not new to our country. They’re old to our country. Many of them were born in our country. I think we ought to get them the hell out of here, too,” he said.
“So maybe that’ll be the next job that we’ll work on together.”
The site can currently house 3,000 people in dormitories corralled by chain-link fences and topped with barbed wire. State officials say it can be expanded to ultimately house 5,000. The site was rapidly constructed by the DeSantis administration in eight days and is equipped with extensive security, including surveillance cameras and 400 staff.
The surrounding area has also been the site of steady protests over the past week, with immigrant advocates, environment activists and Indigenous people flocking to the remote area.
The environmentalists argue that the site threatens important and ecologically sensitive wetlands, immigrant advocates are calling the facility a cruel political stunt and Native leaders have arrived to defend their ancestral homelands.
State officials, who commandeered the land using emergency powers, argue the site is critical to support Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
Trump dismissed environmental concerns on Tuesday, saying in wide-ranging remarks that the wetlands’ wildlife would outlast the human species.
In promoting the opening of the facility, U.S. officials posted on social media images of alligators wearing Immigration and Customs Enforcement hats.
Meanwhile, the Florida Republican Party is selling gator-themed clothing and beer koozies.
To help speed up the processing of detainees, DeSantis is offering up members of the state’s National Guard to be “deputized” as immigration judges to hear their cases as a way to loosen another chokepoint in the country’s overburdened immigration court system.
“I hope my phone rings off the hook from governors calling and saying, ‘How can we do what Florida just did?’” Noem said.
“I would ask every other governor to do the exact same thing,” she added. “This is unique because we can hold individuals here. They can have their hearings, to get due process and then immediately be flown back home to their home countries.”
— With files from Reuters and The Associated Press
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