President Donald Trump on Tuesday toured the site of a new immigration center in South Florida coined “Alligator Alcatraz” and claimed his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, “wanted me in here.”
“Hey, Biden wanted me in here,” Trump said to press, unprompted, during his tour. “He wanted me — didn’t work out that way. But, he wanted me in here, that son of a bitch.
The Trump administration is planning to house 5,000 migrants at an abandoned Cold War-era airfield deep in the Everglades. Migrants would be held in tents and trailers, flown in via the still-functional 10,500-foot runway — the only practical way in or out of the 30-square mile facility, which is surrounded by treacherous terrain and wildlife.
“It presents an efficient, low-cost opportunity to build a temporary detention facility because you don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter,” said Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, the mastermind behind the project. “If people get out, there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons.”
The plan received approval from the Homeland Security Department in less than a week.
Trump toured the site Tuesday alongside Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. DeSantis said they expect the first occupants of the detention center, which would cost about $450 million per year, to arrive Wednesday.
