Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem has steered {that a} Florida migrant detention tent camp referred to as “Alligator Alcatraz” might be used as a blueprint for different states because the federal company seeks so as to add places to carry undocumented migrants going through deportation.
Noem stated in an announcement about the place related amenities might be opened is coming quickly. The secretary famous she has been in contact with not less than 5 GOP governors about their states’ housing detention facilities, however she didn’t specify which of them.
Nevertheless, with out confirming that they’ve been contacted, spokespersons for governors in South Carolina, Mississippi and Texas have informed NewsNation they’re prepared to help in President Trump’s expanding immigration enforcement plans.
“Texas will proceed to help the Trump administration in arresting, detaining, and deporting unlawful immigrants,” Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesman for Gov. Greg Abbott (R), stated.
“Mississippi will do no matter it takes to assist help President Trump’s immigration agenda,” Gov. Tate Reeves’ (R) Chief of Workers Cory Custer stated. “Nothing is off the desk.”
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) has directed state officers to “maintain exploring how the Palmetto State’s distinctive property will be utilized”, a spokesman stated.
McMaster’s assertion got here after Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) wrote on social platform X that “South Carolina’s gators are prepared. They usually’re not huge on paperwork. If I used to be Governor, we’d be bringing Alligator Alcatraz to South Carolina.”
Three males take a selfie close to the location of the state-managed immigration detention facility within the Florida Everglades that officers have named “Alligator Alcatraz.” (Photograph by Joe Raedle/Getty Photographs)
Lawmakers given ‘sanitized’ tour of Florida detention camp: Democrat
But, as supporters of Trump’s name for the biggest home deportation plan in American historical past be part of the push for extra detention facilities, not less than one Democrat is elevating alarms over the “cruel” situations at “Alligator Alcatraz,” which was constructed over simply eight days within the Florida Everglades.
Florida State Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D) was amongst lawmakers who attempted to tour the facility on July 3, however they were denied access by the Florida Division of Emergency Administration, he informed NewsNation. Every week later, the group returned and was granted what he known as a “sanitized, state-sponsored propaganda tour” of the ability.
The group was proven empty cages with working bogs, which Guillermo Smith stated contradicted the stories that his workplace has acquired, which included flooded tents, overflowing bogs and restricted entry to showers.
Others are being denied entry to their appointed immigration attorneys, Guillermo Smith stated, and are lacking scheduled immigration court docket appointments as a result of they’re detained.
A request for remark from NewsNation to the state emergency administration company, which opened the detention heart, was not instantly returned on Thursday.
However the state lawmaker’s larger issues exist on prime of these surrounding residing situations on the tent camp.
“That is much less about how snug is the mattress? Or how good or unhealthy is the meals that’s being served?” Guillermo Smith stated this week.
“It is not a joke. This isn’t a sport,” he continued. “These are individuals’s lives which are being torn aside, and I am frankly ashamed of what I’m seeing.”
Who’s being held at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’?
Guillermo Smith says that a whole bunch of detainees on the Everglades tent camp have been confirmed to not have a legal file.
When the lawmakers got a tour, he continued, they have been allowed to briefly peer into the door of an occupied tent the place 32 detainees have been being held inside every cage. He stated that the group was not allowed to talk to migrant detainees, who he stated have been chanting, “Libertad, Libertad” — Spanish for “freedom.”
The Miami Herald reported that households should not have entry to lists of migrants being held on the heart and that 250 “Alligator Alcatraz” detainees solely have immigration-related violations, that are civil offenses, not legal.
The New York Times, citing a authorities official who spoke on the situation of anonymity, stated that in complete, 60 % of these being held both have legal convictions or pending legal costs. One other official said some migrants who moved to the middle have been transferred from native jails after they have been detained throughout visitors stops or had been moved to the middle from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.
Aerial view of buildings, together with gigantic tents constructed on the not too long ago opened migrant detention heart, “Alligator Alcatraz,” situated on the web site of the Dade-Collier Coaching and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Florida, on Friday, July 4, 2025. (Pedro Portal/Miami Herald/Tribune Information Service by way of Getty Photographs)
Guillermo Smith characterised the chants as “ironic.”
“They’re placing undocumented immigrants on this detention camp who aren’t going through any legal costs,” he stated. “They’re going after cooks, maids, and admittedly, immigrants who had authorized standing 5 minutes in the past.”
The Florida Democrat added that amongst those that are being held on the heart are migrants who beforehand had Short-term Protecting Standing (TPS), which was not too long ago revoked by Trump. Guillermo Smith stated that these migrants are being informed to self-deport or are being threatened with being despatched to the Everglades facility and face deportation.
Noem introduced forward of her go to to “Alligator Alcatraz” in early July that the Florida facility would home a few of the “worst of the worst,” that she stated have been allowed to enter the U.S. underneath the Biden administration. Within the announcement, the DHS chief included the names and pictures of 11 migrants who she stated had been convicted of crimes comparable to murder, kidnapping, little one abuse and rape.
“Alligator Alcatraz, and different amenities prefer it, will give us the aptitude to lock up a few of the worst scumbags,” she stated on the time. “We are going to increase amenities and mattress area in simply days, due to our partnership with Florida. Make America secure once more.”
The truth that the ability is being held up for instance of what Noem desires to duplicate elsewhere is regarding to Democratic lawmakers. The power operates underneath a $450 million annual price, which Guillermo Smith stated is thrice the quantity of that to put migrants in an current everlasting detention heart.
Florida state officers have introduced plans to increase the ability’s capability to five,000 beds. That calculates to $90,000 per detainee per 12 months, the state lawmaker defined, which compares to the nearly $30,000 that is spent per inmate to presently home these in state prisons.
As well as, Guillermo Smith stated he’s ashamed by the notion that the Florida Republican Get together is promoting “Alligator Alcatraz” merchandise, together with $30 T-shirts, $27 baseball caps, and $15 beverage coolers.
“They’re actually not solely pushing, however promoting propaganda,” he stated, including that the federal government is utilizing the ability as a “gimmick” or half of a bigger political sport.
Republicans, together with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, have touted the state-run facility, which operates via a 287 (g) settlement that permits states to companion with federal businesses on immigration enforcement.
The Instances reported that DeSantis is contemplating opening one other facility in North Florida as federal officers search to increase migrant detention facilities throughout the nation. The report indicated that ICE has distanced itself from the ability, with one prime official telling the newspaper that “the final word resolution of who to detain belongs to Florida.”
A DHS spokesperson didn’t instantly return a request for touch upon the enlargement.
NewsNation’s Mills Hayes contributed reporting to this story