The United States will start detaining migrants at an abandoned airport that has been dubbed as the Alligator Alcatraz. According to a report that was published by the BBC, the airport is surrounded by vast swamps which are infested with hundreds of alligators and snakes.
“The new detention centre is being built on the site of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, about 43 miles (70km) from central Miami, in the middle of the Everglades, an ecologically important subtropical wetland. The airfield where the detention centre will be based is mainly a pilot training runway surrounded by vast swamps,” the BBC reported.
The airport belongs to the Miami-Dade County. However, it was turned over to the federal government for use as a migrant detention centre following a 2023 executive order that was issued by Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
It has the capacity to accommodate around 1,000 detainees and will begin operations in July or August.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said that any detainees seeking to escape would face alligators and pythons in the treacherous wetlands surrounding the site.
“There’s really nowhere to go. If you’re housed there, if you’re detained there, there’s no way in, no way out,” Uthmeier said.
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According to a related report that appeared in the New York Times, the administration of President Donald Trump is currently holding about 55,000 immigrants. This means that it is currently holding more immigrants than those who were held as at the end of former President Joe Biden’s administration. At the time, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was holding about 40,000 people.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are working at turbo speed to deliver cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people’s mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens,” said Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary.
