{"id":30108,"date":"2025-07-01T14:53:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T14:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/30108\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T14:53:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T14:53:16","slug":"trump-will-visit-immigration-detention-site-in-the-florida-everglades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/30108\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump will visit immigration detention site in the Florida Everglades"},"content":{"rendered":"

OCHOPEE, Fla. (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump<\/a> will turn a new immigration detention center in a remote area of the Florida Everglades into a symbol of his border crackdown<\/a> when he visits on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The facility, assembled on a remote airstrip with tents and trailers that are normally used after a natural disaster, has been given the nickname \u201cAlligator Alcatraz,\u201d a moniker that has alarmed immigrant activists but appeals to the Republican president\u2019s aggressive approach to deportations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a nice business,\u201d Trump said while leaving the White House in the morning. Then he joked that \u201cwe\u2019re going to teach them how to run away from an alligator if they escape prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t run in a straight line. Run like this,\u201d he said, as he moved his hand in a zigzag motion. \u201cAnd you know what? Your chances go up about 1%.\u201d<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t seem to be sound advice, though. It\u2019s best to dash in one direction in the rare situation when an alligator gives chase, according to a website run by the University of Florida.<\/p>\n

Ahead of Trump\u2019s arrival, local authorities were positioned by the entrance of the airstrip. Media vans and other vehicles were parked along the highway lined by cypress trees.<\/p>\n

Protestors have often gathered<\/a> near the facility, which is about 50 miles (80.47 kilometers) west of Miami and could house 5,000 detainees. They\u2019ve criticized the potential impact on a delicate ecosystem and say Trump is trying to send a cruel message to immigrants \u2014 while some Native American leaders have also opposed construction, saying the land is sacred<\/a>. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Environmental<\/p>\n

Environmental advocates and protesters at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport on Tamiami Trail E, Ochopee, Fla., on Saturday, June 28, 2025, object to the \u201cAlligator Alcatraz\u201d being built at the facility. (Mike Stocker \/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)<\/p>\n

Environmental advocates and protesters at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport on Tamiami Trail E, Ochopee, Fla., on Saturday, June 28, 2025, object to the \u201cAlligator Alcatraz\u201d being built at the facility. (Mike Stocker \/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot of immigrants I have been working with. They are fine people. They do not deserve to be incarcerated here,\u201d said Phyllis Andrews, a retired teacher who drove from Naples, Florida, to protest Trump\u2019s visit on Tuesday. \u201cIt\u2019s terrible that there\u2019s a bounty on their head.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s supporters showed up as well. One wore a hat saying, \u201cTrump was right about everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

A key selling point for the Trump administration is the site\u2019s remoteness \u2014 and the fact that it is in swampland filled with mosquitoes, pythons and alligators. The White House hopes that conveys a message to detainees and the rest of the world that repercussions will be severe if the immigration laws of the United States are not followed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s only one road leading in, and the only way out is a one-way flight,\u201d press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday. \u201cIt is isolated, and it is surrounded by dangerous wildlife and unforgiving terrain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crackdowns on the U.S.-Mexico border and harsh immigration policies have long been a centerpiece of Trump\u2019s political brand.<\/p>\n

During his first term in 2019, Trump denied reports that he floated the idea of building a moat filled with alligators at the southern border. \u201cI may be tough on Border Security, but not that tough,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n

In his second term, Trump has suggested that his administration could move to reopen Alcatraz<\/a>, the notorious and hard-to-reach island prison off San Francisco. The White House has similarly promoted the political shock value of sending some immigrants awaiting deportation from the U.S. to a detention lockup in Guant\u00e1namo Bay, Cuba,<\/a> and others to a megaprison in El Salvador<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some of the ideas have been impractical. For example, transforming Alcatraz from a tourist attraction into a prison would be very costly, and Guant\u00e1namo Bay is being used less often than administration officials originally envisioned. <\/p>\n

However, the new detention center in the Everglades came together very quickly. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem recently told the Associated Press<\/a> that she felt some contractors were charging the government too much to run facilities, \u201cso I went directly to states and to ask them if they could do a better job providing this service.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida officials \u201cwere willing to build it and do it much quicker than what some of the other vendors were,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd it was a real solution that we\u2019ll be able to utilize if we need to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former U.S. Rep. David Jolly of Florida, a former Republican who is now running for governor as a Democrat, called the facility a \u201ccallous political stunt.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees are generally held for reasons like entering the country illegally or overstaying a visa. They are either waiting for ICE to put them on the next flight or bus ride home, or they\u2019re fighting their removal in immigration court.<\/p>\n

If an immigrant is accused of or has committed a violent crime, he or she is tried and held in state or federal criminal jurisdiction, separate from the immigration system. In those cases, they may be transferred to ICE for deportation after completing their criminal sentences.<\/p>\n

State officials are spearheading construction of the Florida facility, but much of the cost is being covered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is best known for responding to hurricanes and other natural disasters.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"This<\/p>\n

This satellite photo captured by Planet Labs PBC on June 25, 2025, shows white structures cropping up on an airstrip in Ochopee, Fla., in the Everglades, where state officials are building an immigration detention facility. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)<\/p>\n

This satellite photo captured by Planet Labs PBC on June 25, 2025, shows white structures cropping up on an airstrip in Ochopee, Fla., in the Everglades, where state officials are building an immigration detention facility. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, whom Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has credited as the architect of the Everglades plan, first debuted the proposal with a slickly produced video, complete with custom graphics featuring red-eyed alligators and a hard rock soundtrack.<\/p>\n

The Department of Homeland Security<\/a> posted an image of alligators wearing ICE hats and sitting in front of a fenced-in compound ringed with barbed wire.<\/p>\n

The Florida Republican Party has fundraised off the facility, selling branded T-shirts and beverage container sleeves. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis<\/a> suggested Monday that the facility would be open and \u201cready for business\u201d by the time Trump arrives. <\/p>\n

The governor, who challenged Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has also played up the fact that the site will be hard to escape from. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey ain\u2019t going anywhere once they\u2019re there, unless you want them to go somewhere, because good luck getting to civilization,\u201d DeSantis said. \u201cSo the security is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Kate Payne in Tallahassee, Florida, Elliot Spagat in San Diego and Chris Megerian in Washington contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OCHOPEE, Fla. (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump will turn a new immigration detention center in a remote area…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":30109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[3881,25711,69,6064,723,57,409,14521,8133,2399,1571,50,25712,80,2938,402,14516,3676,2065,61,67,132,68,93],"class_list":{"0":"post-30108","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-ap-top-news","10":"tag-david-jolly","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-fl-state-wire","13":"tag-florida","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-immigration","16":"tag-james-uthmeier","17":"tag-karoline-leavitt","18":"tag-kristi-noem","19":"tag-national","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-phyllis-andrews","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-prisons","24":"tag-protests-and-demonstrations","25":"tag-ron-desantis","26":"tag-u-s-department-of-homeland-security","27":"tag-u-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","28":"tag-u-s-news","29":"tag-united-states","30":"tag-unitedstates","31":"tag-us","32":"tag-washington-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114778551493567732","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}