‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Migrant Detention Center In Everglades Proposed By FL Attorney General

FLORIDA — A new immigration detention facility in the Everglades, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” has been proposed by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, he said in a video posted Thursday to X.

He pitched creating the facility using an abandoned airport site on 39 square miles in the middle of the Everglades.

The attorney general said Gov. Ron DeSantis asked state leaders to identify places for new temporary detention facilities for migrants. “I think this is the best one, as I like to call it, ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’” Uthmeier said.

The site “presents an efficient, low cost opportunity to build a temporary detention facility because you don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter. If people get out, there’s not much waiting for ‘em other than alligators and pythons,” he said. “Nowhere to go; nowhere to hide.”

Within 30 to 60 days after beginning construction at the Miami Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport it could be “up and running” and could house as many as 1,000 people, according to Uthmeier.

“Florida’s been leading on immigration enforcement, supporting the Trump administration and ISIS efforts to detain and deport criminal aliens,” the attorney general said, per a WFLA report.

Uthmeier's video did not discuss any opposition his plan could face from civil liberties grouops or from environmentalists, since the Everglades’ protected status and fragile ecosystem, The Daily Beast said. He also did not provide any details about funding, oversight, and federal involvement.

ICE migrant detention centers currently hold about 53,000 immigrants under the Trump administration’s latest push, which is beyond what is funded by Congress, the New York Post reported Thursday. The White House has also increased ICE’s daily arrest quota from 1,800 to 3,000.

Watch the attorney general’s video about the proposed facility:

Everglades National Park was the first federally protected area in the U.S. created to preserve its abundance of diverse plant and animal species rather than for its scenic views, according to the National Parks Service.

According to Smithsonian, it is the only place on Earth where alligators and crocodiles live side by side, and is the only spot in the United States where crocodiles can be found. The mixture of freshwater from Lake Okeechobee and saltwater from the ocean makes this dual existence possible.

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