According to a video by Al Jazeera on Tuesday, July 1, 2025, with his trademark defiance and political firepower, United States President Donald Trump has declared the launch of what he calls “the largest deportation operation in the history of the United States.” The statement, delivered amid the unveiling of a controversial detention facility deep in Florida’s swampy wilderness, has sent shockwaves across the country, and the world.
The location of this crackdown is unlike anything seen before: an abandoned airstrip in the heart of the Florida Everglades, now transformed into a 5,000-capacity migrant detention center surrounded by snakes, alligators, and wetlands. Nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz,” the facility symbolizes the president’s aggressive new strategy on immigration, combining isolation, fear, and spectacle into one of the most extreme enforcement zones in modern U.S. history.
Trump’s dramatic announcement was paired with a campaign-style rollout by Florida’s attorney general, who described the site with a chilling flourish:
“When people get out, there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons.”
The message is clear: this is not just immigration enforcement — it is deterrence by design.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) teams have already begun sweeping operations across multiple states, rounding up undocumented migrants for rapid processing and deportation. The Everglades facility serves as a temporary holding zone before deportation flights, a place deliberately chosen for its remoteness, unpredictability, and natural dangers.
One ICE official described the location bluntly:
“This is an incredibly dangerous place. From the snakes you can’t see to the alligators you can, no one trying to run is likely to get far.”
But the most startling detail? The facility is reportedly costing $450 million annually, with a portion of that funding drawn from FEMA, the agency responsible for emergency disaster relief. Critics have condemned the use of federal emergency funds for what they describe as a political stunt, especially during a time when climate-related disasters are rising and humanitarian aid is stretched thin.
Human rights activists are also sounding alarms over the living conditions at the center.
“Holding immigrants in tents, with no running water or permanent infrastructure, in the middle of hurricane season, in the middle of a swamp, it’s horrific,” said one campaigner.
Civil liberties groups have already filed lawsuits to block the facility from operating, citing violations of international standards and threats to migrant safety.
Yet the Trump administration is charging ahead. The Department of Homeland Security has gone as far as sharing memes of alligators dressed as ICE agents, while local Republican leaders are cashing in on the moment, selling “Alligator Alcatraz” merchandise to supporters online.
President Trump is expected to officially open the facility on Tuesday, alongside his Homeland Security Secretary, in what is shaping up to be both a show of force and a symbolic cornerstone of his 2024 reelection campaign.
And the plans don’t stop here.
Officials have already announced a second facility is in development north of Miami, with more locations under consideration nationwide. If executed as planned, Trump’s deportation surge could become the most expansive, and controversial, immigration enforcement project in American history.
