The new migrant detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” is unpopular among Americans as critics raise concerns about whether the center is inhumane, according to a new poll. But the White House told Newsweek in response, in part, “A small, singular poll is nothing compared to the overwhelming support President Trump enjoys from the American people on his immigration agenda to deport criminal illegal aliens.”
Why It Matters
The new detention center in Florida comes as President Donald Trump works to implement his plans for mass deportations, a key campaign promise he ran on last year. The remote facility, located in the middle of the Everglades, has drawn scrutiny over concerns about its isolated location and swift implementation. It has been constructed by the Florida state government—not the Trump administration itself, though the president did visit it this week.
Supporters, however, view it as an effective solution to manage increased immigration enforcement as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has run out of beds to keep detainees.
What to Know
A new poll released Thursday from YouGov found that a plurality of Americans aren’t on board with the detention center.
In total, 48 percent said they oppose “Alligator Alcatraz,” while only 33 percent said they support it. An additional 18 percent were unsure how they felt about it.
Among independents—a key voter group ahead of the 2026 midterms, when Democrats are hoping to retake control of Congress—26 percent are in support of the detention center while 53 percent oppose it, the poll found. Hispanic voters—a group Trump made inroads with last November—also opposed it by a 55-23 margin.
The poll surveyed 2,983 adults on July 3, 2025.
It also found that nearly half of Americans—47 percent—believe people in migrant detention centers are treated too harshly. Twenty-three percent said they are treated “about right,” while 10 percent said they are not treated harshly enough.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson responded to the poll in a statement to Newsweek.
“A small, singular poll is nothing compared to the overwhelming support President Trump enjoys from the American people on his immigration agenda to deport criminal illegal aliens. Alligator Alcatraz is a state-of-the-art facility with adequate beds, air-conditioning, on-site medical, and more, that will help get criminal aliens out of the country,” she said.
She said the facility is a “paradise compared to the Biden-era cages that forced illegal immigrants on the ground, outside, in 100 degree Arizona heat” and a “perfect final stop for criminal illegal immigrants before they are removed from the United States for good.”
The 39-square-mile site is located at the Miami-Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport. The site was chosen in part because it has an airstrip that could be used to fly in detainees. It was built in only eight days to address the federal government’s need for more detention beds.
The facility will cost about $450 million per year to operate. It will offer 500 to 1,000 beds at first, with the goal of 5,000 beds by the end of the month.
It has drawn backlash from immigration, environmental and Indigenous groups and is facing a lawsuit from the group Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity.
What People Are Saying
Secretary of Homeland Security wrote in a post to X: “Alligator Alcatraz can be a blueprint for detention facilities across the country. It will provide DHS with the beds and space needed to safely detain the worst of the worst. Under the leadership of @POTUS Trump, this is the exact kind of solution that happens when we work together and put the American people FIRST.”
Bacardi Jackson, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, wrote in a statement: “As President Trump doubled down on his agenda of fear and division, we’re reminded that this cruel and inhumane stunt is part of a broader strategy to expand the abusive mass detention machine, and in turn, criminalize and disappear members of our communities. Building a prison-like facility on sacred indigenous land in the middle of the Everglades is a direct assault on humanity, dignity, indigenous sovereignty, and the constitutional protections we all share.”
Representative Maxwell Frost, a Florida Democrat, wrote in a statement: “I’ve toured these facilities myself – real ones, not the makeshift tents they plan to put up – and even those detention centers contain conditions that are nothing short of human rights abuses. Places where people are forced to eat, sleep, shower, and defecate all in the same room. Places where medical attention is virtually non-existent. Anyone who supports this is a disgusting excuse for a human being, let alone a public servant.”
What Happens Next
U.S. Northern Command said on Thursday that about 200 Marines were being moved to Florida to “augment U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) interior immigration enforcement mission with critical administrative and logistical capabilities at locations as directed by ICE.”
Update 7/3/2025 6:25 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from the White House.
The post ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Unpopular Among Americans—Poll appeared first on Newsweek.
