Trump will visit a remote immigration detention site in the Florida Everglades

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump is making a time travel to Florida’s Everglades connected Tuesday for a firsthand look astatine a new migration detention facility that the White House suggests volition beryllium particularly unafraid fixed that it is “surrounded by alligators.”

The detention installation is connected an isolated airstrip astir 50 miles (80 kilometers) westbound of Miami and could location 5,000 detainees. It's drawn protests implicit the imaginable interaction connected a delicate ecosystem and disapproval that Trump is trying to nonstop a cruel connection to immigrants — portion immoderate Native American leaders person besides opposed construction, saying the onshore is sacred.

But a cardinal selling constituent for the Trump medication is the site's remoteness, and the information that it is successful swampland filled with mosquitoes, pythons and alligators. The White House hopes that conveys a connection to the detainees being housed determination and the satellite astatine ample that repercussions volition beryllium terrible if the migration laws of the United States are not followed.

Press caput Karoline Leavitt noted that the halfway is “informally known arsenic Alligator Alcatraz,” a moniker that has alarmed migrant activists but appeals to the president’s assertive attack to deportations.

“There’s lone 1 roadworthy starring in, and the lone mode retired is simply a one-way flight,” Leavitt said. “It is isolated and it is surrounded by unsafe wildlife and unforgiving terrain.”

Crackdowns connected the borderline and harsh migration policies person agelong been a centerpiece of Trump’s governmental brand.

During his archetypal word successful 2019, Trump denied reports that helium floated the thought of gathering a moat filled with alligators astatine the U.S.-Mexico border. “I whitethorn beryllium pugnacious connected Border Security, but not that tough," helium said astatine the time.

In his 2nd term, Trump has suggested that his medication could determination to reopen Alcatraz, the notorious and hard-to-reach land situation disconnected San Francisco. And Leavitt said the caller Florida detention center's inhospitable determination — and unsafe adjacent fauna — were pluses.

“A detention halfway surrounded by alligators, yes, I bash deliberation that’s a deterrent for them to effort to escape,” she said.

Former U.S. Rep. David Jolly of Florida, a erstwhile Republican who is present moving for politician arsenic a Democrat, called the installation a “callous governmental stunt.”

The White House has likewise promoted the governmental daze worth of sending immoderate immigrants awaiting deportation from the U.S. to a detention lockup successful Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and others to a megaprison successful El Salvador.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees are successful detention facilities for migration reasons, similar entering the state illegally oregon overstaying a visa. They are either waiting for ICE to enactment them connected the adjacent formation oregon autobus thrust location oregon are warring their removal successful migration court.

If an migrant is accused of oregon has committed a convulsive crime, helium oregon she is tried and held successful authorities oregon national transgression jurisdiction, abstracted from the migration system. In those cases, they whitethorn beryllium transferred to ICE for deportation aft completing their transgression sentences.

State officials are spearheading operation of the Florida facility, but overmuch of the outgo is being covered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is champion known for responding to hurricanes and different earthy disasters.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, whom Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has credited arsenic the designer of the Everglades plan, archetypal debuted the connection with a slickly produced video, implicit with customized graphics featuring red-eyed alligators and backed by a hard stone soundtrack.

The Florida Republican Party has fundraised disconnected the facility, selling branded T-shirts and beverage instrumentality sleeves. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested Monday that the installation could beryllium unfastened and “ready for business” by the clip Trump arrives.

DeSantis said the tract has obtained support from the Department of Homeland Security, which posted an representation of alligators wearing ICE hats and sitting successful beforehand of a fenced-in compound ringed with barbed wire.

The governor, who challenged Trump for the 2024 Republican statesmanlike nomination, has besides played up the information that the tract volition beryllium hard to flight from.

“They ain’t going anyplace erstwhile they’re there, unless you privation them to spell somewhere, due to the fact that bully luck getting to civilization," DeSantis said. "So the information is amazing.”

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Gomez Licon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Associated Press writers Kate Payne successful Tallahassee, Florida, and Elliot Spagat successful San Diego contributed to this report.

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