Donald Trump is expected to be the guest of honor at the grand opening of the Florida migrant detention center nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz” later this week.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is said to have personally invited Trump to inspect the facility, Reuters reports, with White House officials later confirming to NBC News that the president is “likely” to be there.
The detention center, named for its remote location in the Florida Everglades, is located on a little-used airstrip that was seized by Governor Ron DeSantis in 2023 and converted into a migrant processing facility.
The site earned its nickname due to the surrounding subtropical wetlands which are teeming with alligators, crocodiles and pythons, providing natural barriers which could reduce the need for security much like the notorious island prison in San Francisco Bay.
“Alligator Alcatraz” is able to house up to 1,000 migrants at a time and is expected to cost around $450 million to operate annually. It has been hyped by Florida Republicans as the highest-profile example of the state’s efforts to remodel itself into the perfect vehicle to execute Trump’s immigration agenda.
Coming soon! pic.twitter.com/v3DCJsrDwV
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) June 28, 2025
As has become typical of the current administration, the DHS attempted to troll its critics on social media on Saturday with a piece of AI-generated art depicting four alligators wearing ‘ICE’ hats standing outside a prison facility. “Coming Soon!” the post read, which has since been derided by figures on both sides of the political aisle.
“A horrendous lack of humanity,” Brett Bruen, a former U.S. diplomat, wrote in response to the post.
Christopher Burgess, a global security expert and former CIA officer, simply said: “Disgusting.”
“This is not a joke, it’s psychological warfare dressed as meme culture,” an X user remarked. “This isn’t a warning. It’s a threat and DHS just made it official propaganda.”
Meanwhile, a former U.S. soldier said: “This administration is doing good things, but the utter lack of seriousness of your comms team really sucks,”
The facility has also garnered strong opposition from local activists and national figures alike, who have decried its existence as “cruel” and “disgusting.”
“The site is more than 96 percent wetlands, surrounded by Big Cypress National Preserve, and is habitat for the endangered Florida panther and other iconic species,” Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, said in a statement.
“This scheme is not only cruel, it threatens the Everglades ecosystem that state and federal taxpayers have spent billions to protect,” she added.
Friends of the Everglades fled a lawsuit against the state last Friday challenging the move to open the facility in a protected area, which the DeSantis administration said they are happy to fight.
“Governor Ron DeSantis has insisted that Florida will be a force multiplier for federal immigration enforcement, and this facility is a necessary staging operation for mass deportations located at a pre-existing airport that will have no impact on the surrounding environment,” Bryan Griffin, the governor’s spokesman, told the Independent. “We look forward to litigating this case.”
DeSantis called the facility “as secure as it gets” and said that even if an undocumented immigrant were to escape, “You’ve got nowhere to go,” before himself offering the president an invitation to visit the site during an interview with Fox and Friends on Sunday.
The governor told host Steve Doocy that Trump has “an invitation from me. We can land Air Force One right there, no problem. We’ll get it done. I think the president will be impressed with what these guys are doing out here.”
The White House has not yet confirmed whether the president will be in attendance at the opening of the facility on Tuesday. The Daily Beast has reached out for comment.
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