U.S. President Donald Trump toured a deportation center for illegal immigrants that opened on Tuesday in the Everglades, a wetland stretching across southern Florida and serving as a crucial habitat for, among other creatures, alligators and pythons.
The federal prison, with the capacity to hold 3,000 people, was built in eight days at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport inside Big Cypress National Preserve west of Miami, and is intended to be used as a federal immigration jail.
Trump said the facility “might be as good as the real Alcatraz” and added, “It’s a little controversial, but I couldn’t care less.”
Democrats have protested the facility, calling it inhumane because of the hot and humid climate, the surrounding dangerous wildlife, and the potential for hurricanes.
“They can’t get stuck in a hurricane if they self-deport,” Bill Helmich, executive director of the Republican Party of Florida, wrote on X.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials have promoted the facility’s harsh natural surroundings as a central feature, hoping it will serve as a deterrent to illegal immigration. The center will be staffed by over 400 security personnel and is enclosed by more than 28,000 square feet of barbed wire. It is equipped not only to detain illegal immigrants, but also to process their cases, and—if a judge issues a removal order—use the on-site runway to deport individuals directly from the premises.
Environmentalist groups filed a lawsuit against the facility on Friday, citing its potential to endanger the subtropical wetland ecosystem and its diverse wildlife.
