Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is pitching a unique idea for an illegal immigrant detention center in the Sunshine State, which he has dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”
Florida, the state attorney general said, has led the way in assisting President Donald Trump with his America First illegal immigration agenda. The state’s elevated incarceration rate is forcing the justice system to search for additional facilities to detain illegal migrants.
Enter the virtually abandoned Miami-Dade Collier Training Facility, or as Uthmeier calls it, “Alligator Alcatraz.”
He floated the proposal in a video posted to social media on Thursday, describing the Miami Dade Collier training facility as an “old, virtually abandoned airport facility right in the middle of the Everglades.”
“Florida has been leading on immigration enforcement, supporting the Trump administration and ICE’s efforts to detain and deport criminal aliens,” he said, explaining that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has tasked state leaders with identifying new places to temporarily detain illegal migrants.
“I think this is the best one. I call it ‘Alligator Alcatraz.’ This 30 square mile area is completely surrounded by the Everglades — presents an efficient, low cost opportunity to build a temporary detention facility because you don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter,” he said. If detainees were to escape, “there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons.”
“Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide,” he said, adding that this facility could be up and running in one to two months and house up to 1,000 criminal illegal migrants.
“This presents a great opportunity for the state of Florida to work with Miami Dade and Collier counties,” he said. “Alligator Alcatraz. We’re ready to go.”
WATCH:
Uthmeier’s proposal comes days after a federal judge found him to be in civil contempt over a ruling to place a state law — “making it a misdemeanor for people living in the U.S. illegally to enter the state” — on hold, according to the Associated Press:
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams said that Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier was unconvincing in his arguments that he didn’t flout her injunction putting the law on hold. Uthmeier had sent out a memo saying the judge was legally wrong and that he couldn’t prevent police officers and deputies from enforcing the law. A contempt hearing was held two weeks ago in Miami.
“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,” he wrote in response.
Meanwhile, Florida has continued to assist with the Trump administration’s deportation agenda, as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested over 100 illegal aliens at a construction site in Tallahassee, Florida at the end of May. The month prior, ICE — in cooperation with state police — arrested nearly 800 illegal aliens in the Sunshine State as part of a four-day operation called Operation Tidal Wave.
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