The Trump administration is barreling ahead with plans to build a colossal immigration detention camp in the depths of the Florida Everglades – a compound dubbed ‘Alligator Alcatraz.’
The Department of Homeland Security brazenly stoked fear with an AI-generated meme showing snarling alligators in ICE baseball caps patrolling the swampy grounds of the future facility.
The meme, posted on Saturday to X with the tagline ‘Coming soon!’, sent shockwaves through immigrant advocacy groups who denounced it as state-sponsored psychological warfare.
Former US diplomat Brett Bruen slammed the stunt as a ‘horrendous lack of humanity,’ while national security expert Christopher Burgess called the post ‘disgusting.’
The plan for the $450 million-a-year complex envisions housing up to 1,000 migrants on a remote, 39-square-mile plot of marshland surrounding a defunct pilot airstrip in the Everglades, a habitat crawling with thousands of hungry pythons and an estimated 200,000 alligators.
Supporters of the project, including Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, insist the swamp’s lethal wildlife will function as a budget-friendly security measure to deter escape attempts.
Uthmeier, a 37-year-old hardliner dubbed ‘Bulldog’ by allies, made no apologies in a slick, rock-music-laced promotional video touting the terrifying natural ‘moat.’
‘No one’s getting out,’ he declared triumphantly, describing the snake- and gator-infested perimeter as a ‘force multiplier’ to keep detainees in line.
The Department of Homeland Security brazenly stoked fear with an AI-generated meme showing snarling alligators in ICE baseball caps patrolling the swampy grounds of the future facility dubbed ‘Alligator Alcatraz.’
The controversial detention center will be set at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, a forgotten pilot training airstrip deep in the Everglades
The idea has sparked fierce backlash, with critics condemning it over environmental risks and calling out the inhumane conditions of detaining people in such camps
‘Virtually escape-proof,’ he boasted on X, claiming the plan would save taxpayer dollars on fencing and guards. ‘If you get out, there’s not much waiting for you except alligators and pythons.’
The dystopian blueprint evokes President Trump’s own suggestions during his first term of digging a medieval moat filled with deadly creatures along the southern border wall.
Now, his administration appears to be giving that idea fresh legs (and scales) by threatening to move vulnerable migrants into a swampy no-man’s-land patrolled by apex predators.
Democrats and immigrant rights organizations erupted in outrage, accusing the administration of pushing a sadistic spectacle straight out of a horror film.
‘This is not a joke – this is state-sponsored intimidation,’ one activist fumed online. ‘We are treating human beings like prey.’
Meanwhile, environmental defenders have raced to file lawsuits against what they see as an ecological nightmare.
The Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity argue the project could devastate a fragile wetland ecosystem that taxpayers have spent billions to protect, including habitat critical to the endangered Florida panther.
‘The site is over 96 percent wetlands, surrounded by a national preserve, with incredible biodiversity,’ warned Eve Samples, head of Friends of the Everglades to CBS News. ‘This plan is not only cruel, it’s an environmental disaster waiting to happen.’
Uthmeier took to X sharing a one-minute, rock-and-roll-fueled video showcasing his vision for the controversial detention center – set at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport
He billed the plan as a budget-friendly, escape-proof solution – thanks to the alligator and python-infested Everglades surrounding the remote site like a natural fortress
Environmental advocates and protesters gather at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport on Saturday objecting to the ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ being built at the facility
Demonstrators protest the construction of an immigrant detention center, dubbed ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ in the Everglades near Ochopee, Florida
Florida began construction this week on a detention center surrounded by fierce reptiles and cypress swamps, an ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ in the Everglades wetlands
There was no shortage of protestors that turned our to voice their opposition to the project
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava also fired off a letter warning that construction would proceed without adequate study of environmental impacts, financial risks, or public safety.
Yet the Trump-aligned forces behind the proposal appear determined to push forward, brushing off criticism as left-wing hysteria.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s office insisted the swamp-based facility would be a ‘force multiplier’ for mass deportations, while hawking ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ T-shirts, baseball caps, and beverage coolers online for between $15 and $30.
State and federal officials have pointed to the abandoned airstrip as a key logistical benefit, making it easier to fly detainees straight into the swamp instead of busing them from facility to facility.
‘This is the best one,’ Uthmeier boasted. ‘It’s the one-stop shop for President Trump’s mass deportation mission.’
Part of the appeal for the location is the airstrip – allowing immigrants to be flown in directly, avoiding the need to relocate them multiple times
Pitching his plan to the White House, Uthmeier claimed ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ could be operational in just 30 to 60 days – and could house up to 1,000 so-called ‘criminal aliens’
The idea has sparked fierce backlash, with critics condemning it over environmental risks and calling out the inhumane conditions of detaining people in such camps, not to mention being surrounded by dangerous wildllfe
Demonstrators hold signs as they protest the construction of Alligator Alcatraz
Locals are unhappy at the very idea of the construction of the immigrations center
The chosen site, an abandoned airfield in the heart of a sprawling network of mangrove forests, imposing marshes and ‘rivers of grass’ that form the conservation area, will house large tents and beds for 1,000 ‘criminal aliens’
People demonstrate as pro-immigrant protesters, environmental groups, Everglades advocates, members of the Miccosukee Native American community and residents gather outside the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport as they rally against Alligator Alcatraz
Civil rights groups say the plan amounts to turning the Everglades into a weapon of fear.
‘They are literally weaponizing nature against migrants,’ a former immigration official said in disbelief. ‘This is not a security measure. This is a grotesque form of punishment.’
For now, court challenges have slowed the project, but Uthmeier and DeSantis remain defiant, promising they will bulldoze ahead in the name of ‘warrior culture’ and border security.
‘Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide,’ Uthmeier vowed.
