Before departing for Florida on Tuesday, President Donald Trump poked fun at migrants who might try to escape the quickly constructed detention facility in the Everglades that's been dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz."
CNN's Isabel Rosales reported from the site, saying it took "a week and one day" for ICE officials to transform an airport in Ochopee, Florida, into a tent city ready to house some 5,000 detainees awaiting deportation.
"This location here in the Everglades is just under 50 miles west of Trump's resort in Miami," Rosales said, adding that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) claimed, "Not much security is needed thanks to the pythons and gators that are surrounding this facility."
Trump told reporters outside the White House Tuesday, "This is not a nice business. I guess that's the concept. You know, snakes are fast, but alligators are — but we're going to teach them how to run away from an alligator, okay?
"If they escape prison, how to run away. Don't run in a straight line. Run like this!" Trump exclaimed, using his hand to indicate a weaving pattern.
"And you know what? Your chances go up about 1%, okay? Not a good thing," he said with a chuckle.
Immigrants' rights advocates have called the plan "cruel and inhumane."
Thomas Kennedy with the Florida Immigrant Coalition said the Trump administration was treating migrants as "vermin."
"There's nothing about this facility, about this detention camp, that is not cruel and inhumane," he said. "The fact that we're going to have 3,000 people detained in tents in the Everglades, in the middle of the hot Florida summer, during hurricane season, right? I mean, this is a bad idea all around that needs to be opposed and stopped."
Rosales added that the facility is expected to cost around $450 million a year to run.
Trump is expected to tour the facility with DeSantis later Tuesday.