(The Hill) – Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier pitched a new facility to hold migrants in the Everglades called “Alligator Alcatraz” on Thursday.
Uthmeier said in a video posted to X that the location “presents an efficient, low cost opportunity to build a temporary detention facility because you don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter. If people get out, there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons.”
The 39-square-mile site is located at the Miami Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport.
The attorney general estimated that the facility could be up and running within 30 to 60 days of construction and house up to 1,000 undocumented migrants.
“This presents a great opportunity for the state of Florida to work with Miami Dade and Collier counties,” he said.
While the site is surrounded by the Everglades, it is not a part of the Everglades.
According to Fox Business, which got a first look at the property, the sight was chosen in part because it has an airstrip that would be used to fly in migrants.
Uthmeier has taken a staunch conservative stance on immigration as state attorney general. On Tuesday, a federal judge found him to be in civil contempt over her ruling that put a hold on a new Florida law that would label it a misdemeanor for those residing in the country illegally to enter the state.
“If being held in contempt is what it costs to defend the rule of law and stand firmly behind President Trump’s agenda on illegal immigration, so be it,” Uthmeier said in a post on X following the ruling Tuesday.
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