Federal immigration authorities have approved Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier's "Alligator Alcatraz" detention facility in the Everglades, the state's chief legal officer announced Monday.
In a Monday interview with right-wing personality Benny Johnson, Uthmeier revealed that the detention facility for undocumented migrants will be up and running by early July. It will be the sixth of its kind in Florida, revamping the near-defunct Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee.
"The federal government has approved our detention facility plan," Uthmeier said, touting the "low-cost" facility in the outskirts of the Everglades as one with a "perimeter already set by Mother Nature."
He said the facility will have 5,000 beds available for detainees, along with light infrastructure, heavy-duty tent facilities, and trailer facilities.
"We don't need to build a lot of brick and mortar," Uthmeier added.
Alligator Alcatraz comes months after Gov. Ron DeSantis approved a contested immigration law requiring partnerships with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and allowing state police to arrest undocumented immigrants, though a federal judge has temporarily blocked that part of the law.
And while Florida already has five migrant detention facilities, some with up to 1,000 detainees, Uthmeier claimed the rough wildlife and harsh environments surrounding the center will create Alcatraz-style difficulty in escaping—referencing the miles of swamp, alligators, and pythons encircling the airport.
Uthmeier first unveiled the suggestion last week, where he claimed it could be operational within a month of construction at the 39-square-mile airport with its 10,500-foot-long runway. He added that it could "house as many as 1,000 criminal aliens."
Alcatraz was an island prison off the San Francisco shoreline where the worst-of-the-worst criminals were locked up. The federal maximum security prison operated from 1934 to 1964 before it was shut down due to high costs.
It was known to be nearly impossible to escape, considering its natural defenses of the cold water, rip currents, and mile-long distance to shore. During its 29 years in operation (it's now a museum), 36 men were involved in 14 separate escape attempts. Of these, 23 were caught, 6 were shot and killed, and 2 drowned, according to the Bureau of Prisons.
