During Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, NBC News homeland security correspondent Julia Ainsley raised serious concerns about conditions at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Ochopee, Florida — a remote site now being referred to as “Alligator Alcatraz.”
Ainsley highlighted the dangers detainees could face, especially if they attempt to escape, warning that efforts to flee the area — surrounded by swampland and wildlife — could result in “real injuries.”
“During Trump’s first term, this kind of thing was treated like a joke,” Ainsley said. “Michael Shear’s book Border Wars talks about how Trump proposed using the Rio Grande as a moat and even suggested filling it with alligators to stop border crossers. But now, what started as an absurd idea has essentially become reality.”
She explained that the facility — made up of soft-sided, tent-like structures rather than permanent buildings — appears designed more as a symbol of deterrence than as a standard detention center.
“This is clearly intentional,” Ainsley said. “It’s meant to send a message, but it’s also a real risk for those being held there.”
She also pointed out that ICE detention is, by law and policy, not supposed to be punitive.
“ICE detention is meant to hold people temporarily — either while they await deportation or as their immigration cases are processed. It is not supposed to mirror prison,” she said. “That’s still stated clearly on ICE’s own website and backed by court rulings. What’s happening here seems to push the agency far beyond its original mandate.”
