Florida to open 'Alligator Alcatraz' to house immigrants surrounded by 200,000 gators

The Sunshine State's undocumented immigrants might soon find themselves detained at a facility chillingly nicknamed 'Alligator Alcatraz', situated dangerously near Florida's treacherous Everglades.

As a direct result of former President Donald Trump's mass deportation drive, surging numbers of undocumented migrants are cramming into ICE detention facilities, which are now bursting at the seams and condemned as "hellish" by a certain charitable body.

Taking to social media, Florida’s Attorney General James Uthmeier floated the idea of creating the unnervingly titled "Alligator Alcatraz" in the heart of the alligator-infested Everglades National Park on Thursday.

Uthmeier pinpointed the largely abandoned Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport lying within Big Cypress Wildlife Management Area as the prime spot for this form of detainment compound, unveiling his proposal after Governor Ron DeSantis challenged state lawmakers to scout for viable locales for makeshift immigration holds.

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"I think this is the best one," Uthmeier confidently expressed during his broadcast announcement, reports the Mirror US.

Depicting the possible creation of "Alligator Alcatraz", Florida's lead law officer praised the site as both a cost-effective and resourceful option, with the natural boundary of the Everglades potentially slashing the need for heavy spending on security measures.

"If people get out, there's not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons," Uthmeier warned. "Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide."

Uthmeier revealed that the facility could be up and running between 30 to 60 days after construction is finished, with capacity to house up to 1,000 individuals.

"This presents a great opportunity for the state of Florida to work with Miami-Dade and Collier counties," he announced during his speech.

However, Uthmeier didn't speculate on the financial impact of transforming the old complex into animmigration detention centre. The site, originally built in 1968 as the Everglades JetPort, had its construction stopped due to environmental concerns.

Environmental activist Marjory Stoneman Douglas founded Friends of the Everglades in 1969, which played a key role in preventing the JetPort's completion.

According to its website, the property falls under the jurisdiction of Miami-Dade County and currently features a single runway, mainly used for pilot training exercises. Eve Samples, the executive director of Friends of the Everglades, voiced her opposition to WPTV, primarily objecting to the proposed location of the development.

Samples criticised the proposal to media outlets, saying: "It really strikes you as a clueless idea that was off the cuff," and added, "This site is really important to Friends of the Everglades. It's actually the reason Friends of the Everglades was founded by Marjory Stoneman Douglas in 1969, to stop what would have been the world's largest airport from being built right there. It's really ironic that the state attorney general is characterizing this as a largely abandoned site. It was abandoned because the people of Florida, including Friends of the Everglades, rose up to stop it back in 1969, 1970."

She also raised concerns about the future, pointing out, "Think about what could happen if we bring in a 1,000-bed prison, all the ancillary development you would need," and urged action by stating, "We call on the governor to put a stop to this proposal right now. It's a terribly bad idea, and it could totally undermine any Everglades credibility he has remaining."