'Not A Place I Want To Go Hiking': Trump Tours 'Alligator Alcatraz' As He Pushes For More Deportations

(MENAFN- Live Mint) US President Donald Trump toured a new immigration detention center surrounded by alligator-filled swamps in the Florida Everglades on Tuesday.

The detention center was dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz", suggesting it could be a model for future lockups nationwide as his administration races to expand the infrastructure necessary for increasing deportations, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

Trump said he'd like to see similar facilities in“really, many states” and raised the prospect of also deporting US citizens. He even endorsed having Florida National Guard forces possibly serve as immigration judges to ensure migrants are ejected from the country even faster.

“Pretty soon, this facility will handle the most menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet,” Trump said of the Florida site known as“Alligator Alcatraz."

The president said the moniker is“very appropriate because I looked outside and that's not a place I want to go hiking anytime soon."

"The only way out, really, is deportation,” Trump was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.

Hundreds of protesters converged outside the site - a remote airstrip with tents and trailers. They waved signs calling for the humane treatment of migrants as well as the protection of the expansive preserve that is home to a few Native American tribes and many endangered animal species.

Trump jokes: 'Run away from an alligator if...'

The White House has delighted in the area's remoteness - about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Miami - and the fact that it is teeming with pythons and alligators.

It hopes to convey 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.

Before arriving, Trump even joked about migrants being held there. He said,“We're going to teach them how to run away from an alligator if they escape prison.”

“Don't run in a straight line. Run like this,” Trump said, as he moved his hand in a zigzag motion.

“And you know what? Your chances go up about 1%," he added.

Alligator experts suggest it is better to dash in one direction in the rare situation when the reptile gives chase, according to a website run by the University of Florida.

Capacity

Authorities originally suggested that the detention centre could house up to 5,000 detainees upon completion, but DeSantis said it would actually hold around 3,000, with some starting to arrive Wednesday.

The center was built in eight days over 10 miles (16 kilometers) of Everglades. It features more than 200 security cameras, 28,000-plus feet (8,500 meters) of barbed wire and 400 security personnel.

The facility sits some 37 miles (60 km) from Miami in a vast subtropical wetland teeming with alligators, crocodiles and pythons.

An alligator swims near a migrant detention center, dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz," located at the site of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Florida on July 1, 2025.

Trump dismissed concerns about the impact on delicate ecosystems, saying that since the airstrip was already there, authorities wouldn't have to be“dropping dirt.”

“I don't think you've done anything to the Everglades," Trump said. "I think you're just enhancing it.”

Other, though, are appalled, including Phyllis Andrews, a retired teacher who drove from Naples, Florida, to protest Trump's visit and called migrants "fine people."

“They do not deserve to be incarcerated here,” Andrews said.

Part of a larger Trump immigration push

Crackdowns on the US-Mexico border and harsh immigration policies have long been a centerpiece of Trump's political brand.

Trump's administration has vowed that mass deportations are coming, even if some of those notions are impractical. Transforming Alcatraz from a tourist attraction into a prison would be very costly, and Guantánamo Bay is being used less often than administration officials originally envisioned.

Construction of the Everglades site came together fast

Florida plans to offer up members of the National Guard to be“deputized” and assist immigration judges as a way to loosen another chokepoint in the country's long-overburdened immigration court system.

"Guard personnel could provide security along the perimeter and entry control points and help staff the site," officials say.

The detention center has an estimated annual cost of $450 million, but state officials say at least some of that will be covered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency - which is best known for responding to hurricanes and other natural disasters.

MENAFN02072025007365015876ID1109749811