New aerial footage is showing another view of the high-security immigration detention center in Florida’s Everglades coined “Alligator Alcatraz.”
Under Gov. Ron DeSantis’ directive, the facility opened on an airstrip earlier this month for thousands of undocumented immigrants while also serving as a “transitional shelter for migrants.” The tent city was set up at Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport located around 45 miles west of Miami and is only accessible through a two-lane highway, Reuters reported.
Video shows the facility filled with rows of white tents, RVs and portable buildings all surrounded by a vast wetland. Officials have described the center as “escape-proof” due to its terrain. The Everglades is home to alligators, crocodiles, various snakes and the Florida panther, according the National Park Service.
Florida’s Division of Emergency Management oversees the site in coordination with federal agencies including ICE, Reuters reported. The state estimates the facility would cost more than $450 million annually to operate.
See new angle of Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ facility
Trump says its ‘might be as good as the real Alcatraz’
After touring the facility on July 1, President Donald Trump praised Florida officials for picking the isolated wilderness spot, adding “I think it’s great government what we’ve done.”
“They did this in less than a week,” Trump said, according to Reuters. “You look at it and it’s incredible. … It might be as good as the real Alcatraz. Well, that’s a spooky one, too. That’s a tough site.”
Trump added that the center is “not a place I want to go hiking anytime soon” and that “the only way out is really deportation.”
The new facility comes as immigration advocates continue to express concerns over capacity at state and national detention centers amid Trump Administration’s increased pace of immigrant apprehensions and removals from the United States.
Critics have condemned the new detention facility for holding people without a criminal record and for conditions inside. The New York Times reported earlier this month that only about 60% of the detainees have criminal convictions and that 900 men are sleeping in tents.
Others have voiced concerns over the facility’s impact over the Everglade’s itself, home to 36 threatened or endangered species, according to the National Park Service.
Contributing: Fernando Cervantes Jr., USA TODAY and Antonio Fins, Palm Beach Post
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: New aerial footage shows ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ immigration center
