Alligator Alcatraz immigrant prison camp is Florida's sadistic 'one-stop shop' for mass deportation

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The Florida GOP announced via X on Friday: “Feds approve Alligator Alcatraz: Florida’s gator-guarded prison for illegal aliens. Surrounded by swamps & pythons, it’s a one-way ticket to regret. Grab our merch to support tough-on-crime borders! Limited supply—get yours before the gators do!” If you click on the link included, it leads you to their official merchandise page where you can now purchase ALLIGATOR ALCATRAZ-branded t-shirts, hats, and slim drink koozies (presumably to drink Happy Dad.)

Similarly, an image showing four alligators in a row with ICE-branded baseball caps perched on their heads in front of a prison was shared by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) via X on Saturday with the caption, “Coming soon!” 

While the rest of the country argued over whether or not Zohran Mamdani said a phrase he absolutely did not say, the state of Florida under the leadership of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis announced plans to quickly build a new immigrant prison with the nickname “Alligator Alcatraz”; that’s because it’s located at Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, an area in the Everglades wetlands which are rife with alligators and an assortment of lethal wildlife. The idea is that the animals will act as a deterrent for people to escape, and if they try, they could be killed. Some have referred to it as “Alligator Auschwitz” while others say the conditions are more comparable to the Japanese Internment Camps in the 1940’s. Whatever you want to call it, it’s sadistic as hell.

The news of the camp was first reported by the New York Times early last week in a piece that was so even-handed you might forget it’s about Republicans’ wet dream to feed immigrants to animals. NYT reported the camp will cost the state approximately $450 million a year to run, which would be partly federally reimbursed by FEMA. 

“Florida’s attorney general, James Uthmeier, a Trump ally who has pushed to build the detention center in the Everglades, has said the state will not need to invest much in security because the area is surrounded by dangerous wildlife, including alligators and pythons,” the story reads. “A spokesperson for the attorney general said work on the new facility started on Monday morning.”

But on Monday the White House confirmed the immigrant detention camp, which was erected in roughly one week, would be opening tomorrow—with Trump in attendance. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday, "I think his trip to this detention facility actually underscores the need to pass the One Big, Beautiful Bill because we need more detention facilities across the country.”

She added: "This is an efficient and low-cost way to help carry out the largest mass deportation campaign in American history.”

On Friday DeSantis did a Fox News interview with Steve Doocy live from the detention center. 

“The state of Florida is all in on President Trump's mission, and obviously you have ICE operations, but that's not enough,” DeSantis told Doocy. “And so there needs to be more ability to intake, process and then deport. More than 3,000 illegals can be processed through here. We've got a massive runway right behind us where any of the federal assets that they want to fly these people back to their home country. They can do it one-stop shop.”

As DeSantis showed him around the large tent structures, Doocy teed him up to point out the aspects of the facility that made the slapdash project somehow humane, like materials for a “sub-floor” to be built upon the hot concrete ground, and large air conditioning units that would somehow cool the open-air facility.  

“When you think of the imagery of Alcatraz—Alcatraz is surrounded by a bay. Here in the Everglades, you're actually surrounded by gators and Pythons!” Doocy said. 

DeSantis replied, “So this is as secure as it gets. I mean, if a criminal alien were to escape from here somehow, and I don't think they will, you've got nowhere to go. I mean, what are you going to do, trudge through the swamp and dodge alligators on the way back 50-60 miles just to get to civilization? Not going to happen.” The two also took a couple of minutes to inexplicably talk about Mamdani.

Over the weekend hundreds of protesters braved the Florida heat and Florida drivers, lining up on the side of Highway 41, the road leading up to Big Cypress National Preserve in Ochopee where the detention camp is located. People from local Indigenous tribes who live on the preserve and environmental advocates worried about the camp’s disruption to local wildlife stood shoulder to shoulder as trucks drove by with construction materials meant for the deplorable project.

The rate at which the Trump administration is accelerating its detainment of immigrants and expansion of the infrastructure to do so is astonishing. Just six months into his second term, this regime has doubled and tripled down on the overt racism and cruelty displayed the first time around, wasting no time rounding people up and subjecting them to inhumane treatment. Some have been swiftly deported to their birth countries without due process; others have been sent to foreign prisons, like CECOT in El Salvador; and some have been sent to countries where they’ve never been and do not speak the language. 

This rapid escalation has given license to Republicans to be as openly racist as possible when talking about immigrants and/or ethnic minorities. 

Late last week, Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama went on a podcast and said of Sanctuary cities: “You can stop the federal funding. President Trump can do anything he wants when it comes to the federal—again, these inner-city rats, they live off the federal government. And that’s one reason we’re $37 trillion in debt. And it’s time we find these rats and we send them back home, that are living off the American taxpayers, that are working very hard every week to pay taxes.”

Yes, the Auburn University football coach-turned-lobotomized senator really referred to immigrants as “inner-city rats,” blaming the national debt on them. (The funding bill Tuberville’s party is trying to ram through Congress would add at least $3.3 trillion to the national debt, by the way.) 

In a post on X Sunday evening, Republican Congressman Brandon Gill of Texas re-shared an image of New York Democratic Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani—who immigrated to the US as a child and is an American citizen—eating with his hands along with the comment: "Civilized people in America don't eat like this. If you refuse to adopt Western customs, go back to the Third World.” 

I reached out to Rep. Gill’s communications director on Monday with a few follow-up questions about his post, such as: Is the Congressman saying that Americans cannot use their hands to consume food or else they'll be perceived as outsiders? Does Rep. Gill eat a hot dog using a fork and knife? How about a hamburger? Ribs? Corn? Pizza? Is Mamdani's use of his hands considered not "civilized" specifically because of the type of food he's eating and the food/his family's country of origin?

I have not yet received a response.

Trump and his party have speed-run a campaign of extermination against immigrants that evokes the greatest human rights atrocities of the past, all while attempting to pass a funding bill that will bankrupt this country for generations. The people who voted for him are getting exactly what they deserve; but for the rest of us, and especially the most vulnerable among us, we must continue to carefully and bravely navigate the monster-infested waters of the GOP.