DHS secretary praises ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ plan

GUATEMALA CITY (AP):

The Homeland Security secretary is praising Florida for coming forward with an idea that’s been dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” because it would house immigration detainees in a facility being built in a Florida swamp.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the department has been looking to expand immigration detention capacity, and she has been reviewing contracts Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has with various vendors for detention beds.

“The ones with some of the vendors that we had, I felt were way too expensive, and that those vendors were not giving us fair prices and so I went directly to states and to ask them if they could do a better job providing this service,” she said in an interview with The Associated Press as her Latin America trip wound down late Thursday.

She said the department has been reaching out to states or companies who aren’t regular ICE contractors to see whether they’re able to provide the detention space the department needs at a better price.

“We really are looking for people that want to help drive down the cost but still provide a very high level of detention facility,” she said.

Noem said Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier brought this particular idea to the department.

“They were willing to build it and do it much quicker than what some of the other vendors were. And it was a real solution that we’ll be able to utilise if we need to,” she said. Noem said they evaluated the contract and it “made sense”.

OVER 56,000 IMMIGRANTS IN DETENTION

As the Trump administration has dramatically ramped up immigration enforcement around the country as part of its mass deportation effort, the number of people in ICE detention has swelled. ICE detention facilities are currently holding more than 56,000 immigrants in June, the most since 2019.

Florida officials have dubbed the facility that they’re building in the remote and ecologically sensitive wetland about 45 miles (72 kilometres) west of downtown Miami as “Alligator Alcatraz”. The facility located at an isolated Everglades airfield surrounded by mosquito-, python- and alligator-filled swamplands is just days away from being operational.

The detention facility is the latest effort by Florida to assist in President Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

Noem said some of the ICE detention contracts put in place under her predecessor, Alejandro Mayorkas, were for 10-15 years.

“That’s insane to me. If we do our job correctly, we shouldn’t be doing this 15 years from now,” she said.

The detention contracts were among a range of subjects Noem spoke about with the Associated Press during an interview in Guatemala City on the tail end of her four-country tour through Central America. Noem made stops in Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Guatemala.