OCHOPEE, Fla. — The undocumented immigrant detention facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” began taking in migrants on Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis said.
Channel 9’s cameras went inside, along with President Donald Trump, for a first look at the detention center. The president arrived at the new detention center just before 11 a.m. U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and DeSantis joined him on a tour around the facility.
“It’s really government working together,” Trump said.
The structure, built in a matter of weeks, will be able to house thousands of undocumented immigrants, according to the governor. The remote site sits in the middle of the Florida swamp, and it’s surrounded by native lands and wildlife, and that’s why the facility was nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz.”
“It’s known as ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ which is very appropriate because I looked outside and it’s not a place I want to go hiking any time soon,” Trump said during a roundtable with DeSantis and Noem. “Very soon, this facility will have some of the most menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet. We’re surrounded by miles of treacherous swamp land, and the only way out is really deportation, and a lot of these people are self-deporting back to their country.”
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The tents and caged beds were built at the Dade-Collier Training Transition Airport, a site originally operated by the Miami-Dade Aviation Department. The location is just a few miles away from the Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve.
Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity are now suing the state in hopes of putting a stop to the facility.
“You are literally doing this on concrete that’s already here, so I don’t think those are valid and even good faith criticisms because it’s not going to impact the Everglades at all,” DeSantis said during the roundtable. “The president’s been a champion. We’ve been a champion, really changed the game in Florida on it.”
The structure is air conditioned and is made to withstand severe weather, according to the governor. Noem said it is qualified to operate as a detention facility.
“Alligator Alcatraz” was built with funds from the Division of Emergency Management, but Homeland Security is expected to reimburse the state.
As the president toured the facility, hundreds gathered outside in protest, claiming the measure is harmful to the environment and a waste of taxpayer money.
“It’s important to be here today to stand up for human rights,” one demonstrator said.
“We don’t want this. I drove two hours, to stand against this,” said Rachell Bass, a protester who lives in Cape Coral.
While most of those who showed up on Tuesday were against the facility, a few demonstrators also showed up in favor of the initiative.
“They should go ahead and double down on whatever protections they have for the environment and the people out here just to make sure nothing happens to the environment,” said Chaunce O’Connor, a counter-protester, who also said he hopes the structure won’t stay up for too long.
Trump’s agenda was largely based on cracking down on illegal immigration and has vowed to arrest as many as 3,000 undocumented immigrants a day.
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