President Donald Trump says a new immigration detention centre in a remote area of the Florida Everglades, surrounded by alligator-filled swamps, can be a model for future projects as his administration races to expand the infrastructure necessary for increasing deportations.

The facility, where Trump arrived for a tour on Tuesday, has swiftly become a symbol of the president's border crackdown. Migrants could start arriving there soon after he leaves.

Assembled on a remote airstrip with tents and trailers that are normally used after a natural disaster, the detention centre has been nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz”, a moniker that has alarmed immigrant activists but appeals to the Republican president’s aggressive approach to deportations.

“We’re surrounded by miles of treacherous swampland and the only way out is, really, deportation,” Trump said. “This is an amazing thing that they’ve done here.”

Ahead of Trump's arrival, local authorities were positioned by the entrance of the airstrip. Media vans and other vehicles were parked along the highway lined by cypress trees.

Protestors have often gathered near the facility, which is about 50 miles (80km) west of Miami and could house 5000 detainees. They've criticised the potential impact on a delicate ecosystem and say Trump is trying to send a cruel message to immigrants — while some Native American leaders have also opposed construction, saying the land is sacred.

Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visit 'Alligator Alcatraz'. – Reuters

A key selling point for the Trump administration is the site's remoteness — and the fact that it is in swampland filled with mosquitoes, pythons and alligators. The White House hopes that conveys a message to detainees and the rest of the world that repercussions will be severe if the immigration laws of the United States are not followed.

“There’s only one road leading in, and the only way out is a one-way flight,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. “It is isolated, and it is surrounded by dangerous wildlife and unforgiving terrain.”

Crackdowns on the US-Mexico border and harsh immigration policies have long been a centerpiece of Trump’s political brand.

During his first term in 2019, Trump denied reports that he floated the idea of building a moat filled with alligators at the southern border. “I may be tough on Border Security, but not that tough," he said at the time.

In his second term, Trump has suggested that his administration could move to re-open Alcatraz, the notorious and hard-to-reach island prison off San Francisco. The White House has similarly promoted the political shock value of sending some immigrants awaiting deportation from the US to a detention lockup in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and others to a megaprison in El Salvador.

Some of the ideas have been impractical. For example, transforming Alcatraz from a tourist attraction into a prison would be very costly, and Guantánamo Bay is being used less often than administration officials originally envisioned.

However, the new detention centre in the Everglades came together very quickly. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem recently said she felt some contractors were charging the government too much to run facilities, “so I went directly to states and to ask them if they could do a better job providing this service”.

Florida officials “were willing to build it and do it much quicker than what some of the other vendors were”, she said.

“And it was a real solution that we’ll be able to utilise if we need to,” she added.

Donald Trump with Governor Ron DeSantis at 'Alligator Alcatraz'. – AP

Former US Representative David Jolly of Florida, a former Republican who is now running for governor as a Democrat, called the facility a “callous political stunt”.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees are generally held for reasons like entering the country illegally or overstaying a visa. They are either waiting for ICE to put them on the next flight or bus ride home, or they're fighting their removal in immigration court.

If an immigrant is accused of or has committed a violent crime, he or she is tried and held in state or federal criminal jurisdiction, separate from the immigration system. In those cases, they may be transferred to ICE for deportation after completing their criminal sentences.

State officials are spearheading construction of the Florida facility, but much of the cost is being covered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is best known for responding to hurricanes and other natural disasters.

The site's remote location is meant to be a deterrent against illegal immigration and a motivator for detainees to self-deport.

“You don’t always have land so beautiful and so secure. You have a lot of bodyguards and a lot of cops that are in the form of alligators. You don’t have pay them so much,” Trump said.

The Florida Republican Party has fundraised off the facility, selling branded T-shirts and beverage container sleeves. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suggested Monday that the facility would be open and “ready for business” by the time Trump arrives.

The governor, who challenged Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has also played up the fact that the site will be hard to escape from.

“They ain’t going anywhere once they’re there, unless you want them to go somewhere, because good luck getting to civilization," DeSantis said. "So the security is amazing.”

Alligator Alcatraz – what to know

The new immigration detention centre at an isolated airstrip in the Florida Everglades that President Donald Trump visited on Tuesday was heralded by Republicans as a potential model for other states to aggressively ramp up detention and deportation efforts.

The site can currently house 3000 people in dormitories corralled by chain-link fences and topped with barbed wire, and state officials say it can be expanded to ultimately house 5000. P

Dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” by state officials, the facility is located at an isolated airfield about 45 miles (72km) west of downtown Miami and is surrounded by swamps filled with mosquitoes, pythons and alligators.

An alligator near the entrance road of the migrant detention centre. – Reuters

It took just days to build

Florida officials raced to erect the compound of heavy-duty tents, trailers and temporary buildings in eight days, as part of the state’s muscular efforts to help carry out Trump’s immigration crackdown. The centre is estimated to cost $450 million a year, with the expenses incurred by Florida and reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a US official said.

Inside, rows of bunkbeds are surrounded by chain-link fencing, where migrants could be housed for days, weeks or months. Officials say detainees will have access to medical care, 24/7 air conditioning, and a rec yard, as well as support from attorneys and members of the clergy.

The facility is meant to help the Trump administration reach its goal of more than doubling its existing 41,000 beds for detaining migrants to at least 100,000 beds.

Backers call it a ‘one-stop shop’

To help speed up the processing of detainees, DeSantis is offering up members of the state's National Guard to be “deputised” as immigration judges to hear their cases, as a way to loosen another chokepoint in the country’s long-overburdened immigration court system.

“I hope my phone rings off the hook from governors calling and saying, ‘How can we do what Florida just did?’,” Noem said.

“I would ask every other governor to do the exact same thing," she added. "This is unique because we can hold individuals here. They can have their hearings, to get due process and then immediately be flown back home to their home countries.”

It won't be the only one

DeSantis said the state is moving forward with building another makeshift detention centre for migrants at a National Guard training facility called Camp Blanding, about 30 miles (48km) southwest of Jacksonville in northeast Florida.

State officials have opened a bid for contractors on that site, which is expected to hold another 2000 beds, with plans to start construction there after the July 4 holiday.

The state is pouring significant resources into the makeshift facilities and hiring private contractors to help build and supply the sites, even as a recent report suggested that Florida has thousands of vacant beds in county jails and detention centres that already exist. According to a state report shared with The Associated Press, as of March 28, 2025, there were more than 7500 vacant beds available to sublet to ICE for use as immigration detention beds.

Florida is using emergency powers to build the site

State officials have commandeered the land using emergency powers, under a years-old executive order issued by DeSantis during the administration of then-President Joe Biden to respond to what the governor deemed a crisis caused by illegal immigration.

Relying on the emergency order, the state has fast-tracked the project, in what critics have called an abuse of power.

“Governor DeSantis has insisted that the state of Florida, under his leadership, will facilitate the federal government in enforcing immigration law,” a DeSantis spokesperson said in a statement.

“Florida will continue to lead on immigration enforcement.”

It's drawn hundreds of protesters

Hundreds of immigrant advocates, environmental activists and Native Americans defending their ancestral homelands have thronged to the airstrip to protest.

In Big Cypress National Preserve, where the airstrip is located, 15 traditional Miccosukee and Seminole villages, as well as burial grounds and ceremonial sites, remain.

Worries about environmental impacts have also been at the forefront, prompting the Center for Biological Diversity and the Friends of the Everglades to file a lawsuit Friday to halt the detention centre plans.