Trump to Attend Opening of ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ in Florida

‘The facility will have up to 5,000 beds to house, process, and deport criminal illegal aliens,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he boards Air Force One at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, N.J., as he returns to the White House from his golf club in Bedminster on June 21, 2025. Mandel Ngan/AFP

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump will travel to Florida on July 1 for the opening of a new illegal immigrant detention facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” due to its remote location and surrounding wildlife, according to the White House.

The facility is located at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, a sparsely used airstrip deep in the Everglades and roughly 36 miles southwest of Miami in the town of Ochopee, Florida. The Miami-Dade County government owns the site.

“There is only one road leading in, and the only way out is a one-way flight,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press briefing.

“It is isolated and surrounded by dangerous wildlife and unforgiving terrain. The facility will have up to 5,000 beds to house, process, and deport criminal illegal aliens.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) will join the president at the opening ceremony.

The facility is “an efficient and low-cost way” to help carry out the president’s mass deportation campaign, Leavitt said.

The president’s trip, she added, underscores the need for Congress to pass his sweeping legislative package, dubbed the “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” which includes funding for additional detention centers nationwide.

“We only have 7,000 ICE agents,” Leavitt said, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “So, we obviously need more personnel. We need more resources.”

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, who first coined the term “Alligator Alcatraz,” previously said the site’s location offered a key strategic advantage.

“You don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter,” he said in a video posted to social media platform X on June 19. “People get out, there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons. Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide.”

According to Leavitt, alligators serve as a strong deterrent for illegal immigrants thinking of making an attempt to escape.

“We do know that some of these illegal criminals have escaped from other detention facilities, like one in New Jersey,” she said.

Alligator Alcatraz is expected to cost about $450 million per year. The facility plans were drafted by the Florida Division of Emergency Management and submitted to the Department of Homeland Security, receiving final approval from Noem on June 23.

The following day, DeSantis invoked emergency powers to expedite the project.

However, on June 27, two environmental groups—Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity—filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of Florida seeking to block the project. The plaintiffs requested a preliminary injunction, arguing that the detention and deportation center was approved without the required environmental reviews.

The governor’s office previously stated that the site would be used without “the removal of vegetation, additional paving, or permanent construction.”

T.J. Muscaro contributed to this report.