Florida’s infamous new migrant detention center — nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz” — has become a hot topic nationwide after President Donald Trump visited the controversial facility this week.
Located deep in the Everglades, the camp is surrounded by treacherous swamps teeming with snakes, alligators, and crocodiles, creating a dangerous natural barrier for detainees.
Proudly defended the facility
During his visit on July 1, Trump didn’t hold back on the facility’s harsh reality. “Snakes are fast but alligators — we’re going to teach them how to run away from an alligator,” he told reporters, demonstrating with a hand gesture, “Don’t run in a straight line. Run like this.” The chilling advice came as a stark warning to migrants who could soon find themselves trapped inside the detention center.
The president openly acknowledged the camp’s controversial nature, calling it “a little controversial” but shrugging off criticism.
“It might be as good as the real Alcatraz,” he added, referring to the notorious former prison outside San Fransisco known for housing America’s most dangerous criminals. A prison that Trump, by the way, wants to reopen.
Trump toured Alligator Alcatraz alongside Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, who all proudly defended the facility, despite growing public outcry comparing it to a Nazi-style internment camp rather than a migrant detention center.
Indigenous leaders not happy
Protests erupted as locals stood in the rain outside the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport — the camp’s location — to voice their opposition to what they see as an inhumane approach to immigration.
Indigenous leaders have also spoken out against the state’s plan to build the detention center on their ancestral lands. Native American communities have deep roots in this region, dating back thousands of years.
For centuries, the vast wetlands of present-day South Florida have been home to Native peoples, including the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma.
Miccosukee Chairman Talbert Cypress emphasized the significance of the land, saying, “Rather than Miccosukee homelands being an uninhabited wasteland for alligators and pythons, as some have suggested, the Big Cypress is the Tribe’s traditional homelands. The landscape has protected the Miccosukee and Seminole people for generations.”
Will the alligators really act as camp guards?
Garrett Stuart, who lives just three miles from the site, described Big Cypress’s crystal-clear waters, open prairies, and lush tree islands as bursting with wildlife.
“To suggest that alligators and pythons can act as security guards is something only someone who’s never spent time in the swamp would say,” Stuart told AP and added: “Those animals are afraid of humans.”
Backing the president was right-wing commentator Benny Johnson, who gleefully filmed a selfie-style video calling the place a “Jurassic Park” and bragged about asking Trump questions live on TV.
Johnson’s cruel remarks about the camp shocked many: “You go in and you don’t come out. And if you do, the alligators get you.” Wearing “official Alligator Alcatraz merch” — funded by Florida’s Attorney General James Uthmeier — Johnson celebrated the camp as part of Trump’s “mass deportation agenda.”
Trump’s jab at Joe Biden
Despite the controversy, Trump used the visit to squash old beef with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, praising his swift efforts to get the facility operational in just eight days. “Ron worked beautifully with Kristi and all the people at Homeland Security and got it done in how many days, Ron?” Trump asked, with DeSantis replying, “Eight days, a new facility was up and running.”
But the visit wasn’t without Trump’s trademark insults, taking a jab at former President Joe Biden, Trump called him a “son of a b***h,” blaming him for wanting Trump inside the detention center.
Set to house up to 3,000 migrants initially — with plans to expand to 5,000 — the state-run complex is built on a former airfield and surrounded by deadly swamp creatures, ensuring there’s no easy escape.
With an estimated annual cost of $450 million, “Alligator Alcatraz” is already stirring fierce debate across the country, raising urgent questions about the U.S. immigration system and human rights.
