U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to visit a new migrant detention center in Florida on Tuesday, July 1. The center, nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz,” is located in the remote Everglades and has already drawn public attention and protests.
The facility is a temporary immigration detention center being built at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport. It earned its nickname due to its location in the wild wetlands, full of alligators, crocodiles, and even pythons. A Florida official said the natural landscape makes it hard to escape, so it needs very little man-made security.
Trump is expected to visit the site with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who invited him to attend. The White House has not yet confirmed the visit, but a source familiar with the plan shared the information anonymously on Sunday.
This move is part of Trump’s larger effort to crack down on illegal immigration. He claims that stronger detention policies are necessary after what he called a border “crisis” under former President Joe Biden’s administration.
Government data shows that the number of migrants in federal immigration detention has jumped significantly since Trump returned to office. By June 15, the number of detainees had reached 56,000, up from 39,000 when Trump first took office earlier this year.
Construction of the “Alligator Alcatraz” site has faced protests from local activists and human rights groups who argue that the location is too isolated and the policy too harsh. Still, Trump’s administration continues to expand detention capacity across the country.