President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit the newly constructed migrant detention center deep in Florida’s Everglades on Tuesday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed. The facility, already dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” by critics, is located at the remote Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport and is set to begin operations the same day.
Designed to hold up to 5,000 detainees, the Everglades facility is part of the Trump administration’s sweeping effort to expand immigration detention and accelerate deportations. Migrants have already been sent to detention centers in Guantánamo Bay and El Salvador. Officials say the Everglades site adds significant capacity to support what Trump has described as “the largest mass deportation campaign in American history.”
“This visit will highlight the urgency of passing the One Big, Beautiful Bill,” Leavitt said Monday, referring to the administration’s sweeping immigration funding legislation, which includes billions for new detention infrastructure. The Senate may vote on the measure Tuesday, aiming to send it to the House before Trump’s self-imposed July 4 deadline.
Facility Sparks Outcry Over Location and Conditions
The detention center’s isolated location — surrounded by alligators, snakes, and marshland — has raised alarm among human rights and environmental groups. Aerial images show construction in progress at the airport site, located near Ochopee, Florida.
“There’s only one road in, and the only way out is a one-way flight,” Leavitt said, adding that the environment acts as a “natural deterrent” against escape. “This is an efficient, low-cost way to detain and deport criminal illegal aliens,” she claimed.
Pressed on whether the perilous environment could endanger detainees, Leavitt responded: “When you have murderers, rapists, and violent criminals in custody, being surrounded by dangerous wildlife isn’t a flaw — it’s a feature.”
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier echoed that sentiment in a post on X, calling the center “a one-stop shop for Trump’s deportation agenda,” and noting that its location reduces the need for high-cost perimeter security. “People escape, they’re met by alligators and pythons. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide,” he wrote.
High-Profile Support and Growing Legal Challenges
Trump will be joined on the tour by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and Rep. Byron Donalds. In a statement, Noem praised the facility as a model for rapid immigration enforcement. “This gives us the power to lock up some of the worst offenders who crossed under the last administration,” she said. “Thanks to Florida, we’re expanding capacity in days.”
DeSantis called the facility “as safe and secure as you can be.”
But not everyone agrees. Environmental groups have filed lawsuits to halt construction, arguing that it violates the Endangered Species Act and threatens protected wildlife. Native American activists and local environmentalists held a protest along the highway on Saturday, denouncing the facility’s impact on sacred land and the treatment of migrants.
“This is a humanitarian and ecological disaster in the making,” said one protester. “We won’t let our home be turned into a prison.”Tools
