A former airfield deep in the Florida Everglades is set to become the site of a new immigrant detention center, part of a broader crackdown on undocumented migration backed by the Trump administration.
Dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” by Florida officials, the facility will be located in a remote, swampy area surrounded by alligators, snakes, and marshland. The nickname is intentionally intimidating. “There’s really no way out. If you’re detained there, you’re stuck,” said Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier in an interview with Benny Johnson, as reported by CBS News.
On Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed that the federal government will co-fund the project using FEMA funds originally earmarked for emergency shelter programs.
The state plans for the facility—built on a decommissioned military site—to house up to 5,000 detainees. Transfers of detainees are expected to begin next month. According to Uthmeier, only undocumented immigrants with criminal records will be held there.
However, critics say the project is emblematic of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration agenda, which seeks to restart large-scale deportation efforts with support from Republican-led states such as Florida, Texas, and Louisiana.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are moving full speed ahead to implement innovative, cost-effective solutions that fulfill the American people’s mandate for the mass deportation of criminal illegal aliens,” Noem said in a statement shared with CBS News.
The project will be funded largely through FEMA’s “Shelter and Services Program,” a federal initiative originally designed to support cities and NGOs that assist migrants released from detention. Under the Trump administration, those funds are now being redirected toward detention infrastructure—even as FEMA faces cuts in other areas of its disaster relief operations. The shift has sparked concern among human rights organizations.
Florida’s attorney general reaffirmed his full support for the president’s immigration agenda. “I’m proud to assist President Trump and Secretary Noem in finally fixing our illegal immigration problem,” Uthmeier told CBS News. “Alligator Alcatraz and the other facilities we’re building in Florida will be a big part of that solution.”
The project is part of a broader strategy in which several conservative states are providing logistical and legal support to federal immigration enforcement. In Texas, National Guard troops have already been deputized as immigration officers—a controversial but deliberate move under the current administration, as reported by CBS News.
