The Japan Times - Trump hails new 'Alligator Alcatraz' migrant detention center

Critics of Trump's harsh immigration crackdown have called the site in the Everglades swamp inhumane, but the Republican embraced the controversy as he attended its official opening.

"A lot of cops in the form of alligators -- you don't have to pay them so much," Trump told reporters in Ochopee, Florida.

"I wouldn't want to run through the Everglades for long. It will keep people where they're supposed to be."

The Florida detention center is part of the Trump administration's tough optics for its crackdown on undocumented migrants since the 78-year-old returned to power in January.

The site on an abandoned airfield in the Everglades conservation area will cost an estimated $450 million and house 1,000 people, Florida authorities say.

Florida's Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who greeted Trump on the tarmac, said "we want to cut through bureaucracy... to get the removal of these illegals done."

- 'Run away' -

Trump, who has cracked down on undocumented migrants since returning to power, riffed on the idea of people running away from Florida wildlife as he left the White House earlier.

"I guess that's the concept," Trump told reporters when asked if the idea behind the detention center was that people who escaped from it would get eaten by alligators or snakes.

"This is not a nice business. Snakes are fast, but alligators... we're going to teach them how to run away from an alligator, okay?

"If they escape prison, how to run away. Don't run in a straight line. Run like this. And you know what? Your chances go up about one percent."

But Trump later embarked on one of his dark diatribes about immigration in a news conference at the site, describing an influx of undocumented migrants under Democratic predecessor Joe Biden as "disgusting" and falsely conflating most migrants with "sadistic" criminal gangs.

The name "Alligator Alcatraz" is a reference to Alcatraz Island, the former prison in San Franciso that Trump recently said he wanted to reopen.

That plan has apparently stalled after officials said it would cost too much and be too impractical to reopen the prison surrounded by shark-infested waters.

As it seeks to look tough on migration, the Trump administration is also sending some undocumented migrants to the former "War on Terror" prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

- 'Bite incidents' -

Protesters against Trump's immigration policies have demonstrated outside the new Florida facility in recent days.

Environmentalists have also criticized the creation of the camp in a conservation area.

The Everglades National Park is particularly known as a major habitat for alligators, with an estimated population of around 200,000. They can reach up to 15 feet in length when fully grown.

Attacks by alligators on humans are relatively rare in Florida.

Across the entire state there were 453 "unprovoked bite incidents" between 1948 and 2022, 26 of which resulted in human fatalities, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

But authorities have played up the risk.

Trump's "Alligator Alcatraz" visit comes as he tries to push a huge tax and spending bill through Congress this week.

The "One Big Beautiful Bill" contains funding for Trump's immigration crackdown including an increase in places in detention centers.

The deportation drive is part of a broader campaign of harsh optics on migration, including raids in Los Angeles that sparked protests against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

K.Inoue--JT