ANNALS OF DeSANTISTAN" Donald Trump will visit the opening of ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ (Rafael Olmeda, South Florida Sun Sentinel, June 30, 2025)

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Donald Trump will visit the opening of ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

The Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in the Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida, in December 2019. Florida is building a detention facility for migrants nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz,” turning an the old airport in the Everglades into the newest local prison designed to help the Trump administration carry out its immigration crackdown. (Erik Freeland/The New York Times)

By RAFAEL OLMEDA | rolmeda@sunsentinel.com | South Florida Sun Sentinel

UPDATED: June 30, 2025 at 3:59 PM EDT

The detention facility nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz” is set to open on Tuesday, and President Donald Trump will be on hand to check it out for himself, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday.

“We literally are doing what the voters who elected us have been demanding for many, many years,” DeSantis said Monday morning.

He called the Everglades site, just west of the border between Miami-Dade and Collier counties, an ideal location to house immigrants who are not in the country legally prior to their deportation.

“The security is amazing,” he said. “Natural and otherwise.”

Senate Democrats last week accused DeSantis and Attorney General James Uthmeier of hiding their plans until after the end of the state’s legislative session in order to avoid public debate about it. But DeSantis indicated that plans for the detention center should not have taken anyone by surprise.

“I think we probably put it out about a month or so ago through the Division of Emergency Management under our director Kevin Guthrie, where we would be able to stand up some makeshift detention space very quickly around the state of Florida,” he said.

DeSantis predicted the president will like what he sees when he gets to the old airfield in the swamp.

“It’s a massive runway and you know there’s different — there’s not a lot of buildings out there, but there’s a lot of concrete, and so these guys set up this whole thing within a matter of days, and so when the president comes (Tuesday), he’s going to be able to see” the value of the location, DeSantis said.

In Washington D.C., presidential spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt confirmed the president’s plan to see Alligator Alcatraz for himself.

“The facility will have up to 5,000 beds to house, process and deport criminal illegal aliens. This is an efficient and low-cost way to help carry out the largest mass deportation campaign in American history,” she said.

DeSantis once again offered the assistance of Florida’s National Guard to help streamline the deportation process. Noting that immigration judges are executive branch employees and not elected or appointed in the same way as other jurists, DeSantis said the president has the authority to deputize a variety of government employees to take on the task.

“We’ve offered some of our national guardsmen to be able to serve as immigration judges,” he said.

DeSantis first floated the idea in May, and while it’s not clear whether the proposal has gained any traction, the governor hasn’t given up on it.

The facility is expected to house as many as 5,000 detainees at a time. DeSantis said the airstrip location might make it easier to fly them out of the country.

Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457. 

Originally Published: June 30, 2025 at 12:38 PM EDT