Detention center for migrants | The “Alcatraz of the Alligators” receives its first prisoners

The first group of immigrants arrived in a new detention center in the heart of the Everglades in Florida, which the authorities have nicknamed “the Alcatraz of the Alligators,” a spokesman for the republican attorney general James Uthmeier told the Associated Press.

“There are people on the spot,” said spokesman Jae Williams, without providing details on the number of detainees or their arrival date.

“Next step: return from where they come from,” wrote Mr. Uthmeier on social network X Wednesday. He is considered the architect of the Everglades project.

“Established in record time under the direction of @govrondesantis and in coordination with @dhsgov and @icegov, the Florida is proud to contribute to the mission of @realdonaldtrump aimed at enforcing the law on immigration”, published the account of the Florida emergency management on Thursday on the social network X. The Republican Governor Ron Desantis and the FDEM, who built the site, remained unanswered Thursday afternoon.

The center, located at an airport used for training, will have an initial capacity of around 3000 prisoners, said Ron Desantis. Built in eight days, the center has more than 200 security cameras, over 8,500 meters of barbed wire and 400 security agents.

Immigrants arrested by Florida’s police as part of the federal government’s “G) program (G) will be taken to this center, according to a managing manner of President Donald Trump. This program, led by immigration and Customs Enforcement (IMDE), allows the police to question the immigrants put in their care and to place them in detention for a possible expulsion.

Up to 5000 beds in early July

The center is expected to be enlarged by 500 beds, until reaching an estimated capacity of 5,000 beds in early July. A group of Florida Democratic legislators went to the site Thursday to make an “official legislative visit”, expressing their concerns about the conditions of detention and the allocation of millions of dollars in public contracts for its construction.

“As legislators, we have both legal law and moral responsibility to inspect this site, demand answers and denounce these abuses before they become a national model,” the legislators said in a joint statement before the visit.

Federal agencies expressed their opposition to legal action brought by environmental groups to have the activities of the detention center on Thursday. Although Donald Trump praised the center during an official visit to the start of the week, the complaint filed on behalf of the Department of Internal Security (DHS) seems to aim for his administration of the center and indicates that no federal funding has been devoted to date.

“The DHS has neither implemented, authorized, directed, nor financed the temporary detention center of Florida. Florida builds and operates the center with public funds on state land, under the state’s emergency authority and a preexisting general delegation of the federal authority for the implementation of immigration functions, “said the American document.

Defenders of human rights and indigenous groups also protested the center, claiming that it is a threat to the fragile system of the Everglades, that it would be cruel to detainees due to heat and mosquitoes, and that it is on land that the Aboriginal people consider sacred.

It is also located in a place subject to frequent torrential rains, which caused floods in the tents on Tuesday, during the visit of President Donald Trump to mark his inauguration. State authorities claim that the complex can withstand a category 2 hurricane, with winds from 154 to 177 km/h, and that entrepreneurs have worked overnight to consolidate the flood zones.

According to images shared with AP, on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, workers installed new “Alligator Alcatraz” panels along the only road leading to the site and in front of the aerodrome entrance, formerly known as the Dade-Collier training and transition airport. State authorities have seized the land belonging to the county where the center is, under the emergency powers granted by a decree of the governor.

Ron Desantis and other state officials claim that the establishment of the center in the Everglades, a wild and isolated region of Florida, has a dissuasive objective. The name of the famous Federal Prison of Alcatraz, an island prison known for its brutal conditions of detention, aims to send a message. This is another sign that the Trump administration and its allies use alarmist tactics to try to persuade people in an irregular situation to leave the country voluntarily.

State and federal government officials have praised the merits of this project on social networks and on conservative waves, sharing a meme representing a complex surrounded by barbed wire and “kept” by alligators carrying hats with “ICE” (Ice “(immigration and customs). The Florida Republican Party began collecting funds for the detention center, selling jersey and beer cans in the image of the center.

Curt Anderson has made its report from St Petersburg, Florida. Kate Payne made her report from Tallahassee, Florida. Gisela Salomon, journalist of the Associated Press in Miami, contributed to this report.