Florida AG pitches 'Alligator Alcatraz' immigration detention center

Skyler Swisher, Orlando Sentinel on Jun 19, 2025

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ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier wants to set up an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades he is calling “Alligator Alcatraz.”

Uthmeier touted his proposal for a 1,000-bed facility as “the one-stop shop to carry out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.”

It would be positioned on a “virtually abandoned” airstrip surrounded by wetlands, he said.

“People get out, there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons,” Uthmeier said in a video posted on his X account. “Nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide.”

Those held at the Everglades facility could be deported on flights leaving directly from the site’s runway, Fox Business reported.

Uthmeier said the detention center could be up and running in 30 to 60 days once construction starts. He compared it to the former maximum security prison on Alcatraz Island off the coast of San Francisco. Trump has called for reopening the prison for “America’s most ruthless and violent offenders.”

Uthmeier’s office and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to the Orlando Sentinel’s requests for additional details on the Everglades proposal.

The airstrip Uthmeier mentioned is the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, which is owned by Miami-Dade County and is about 55 miles west of downtown Miami.

The runway was part of the Everglades Jetport project, which aimed to build a massive airport that would serve South Florida and the Gulf coast. Construction ultimately was halted during the 1970s amid environmental concerns.

Miami-Dade officials did not immediately respond to inquiries into whether they have been involved in discussions to use the facility as a detention center.

Uthmeier and Gov. Ron DeSantis have vowed to do everything in their power to support Trump’s immigration agenda. During the campaign, Trump called for the deportation of millions of people living in the country illegally and has pushed immigration authorities to ramp up efforts to find and detain them.

As a result, immigration arrests are surging across Central Florida. In all of 2024, for example, Orange County booked about 800 people on detainers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement into its jail. By the end of May, the 2025 count had already hit 1,314.

Uthmeier is a former chief of staff for DeSantis, who appointed him attorney general after picking then-Attorney General Ashley Moody to fill an open U.S. Senate seat. Uthmeier is planning to run for the attorney general post next year.

Uthmeier recently came under fire for his hardline stance on immigration. On Tuesday, a federal judge held him in civil contempt of court, ruling that he defied a court order putting part of the state’s new immigration enforcement law on hold.

The judge ordered Uthmeier to file biweekly reports detailing “any arrests, detentions, or law enforcement actions” under the disputed provisions of the state law.

“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,” Uthmeier wrote in response on social media.

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