U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks about the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) next to U.S. President Donald Trump, in the Oval Office at the White House, in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 10, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
The Trump administration's immigration crackdown has plans for an Everglades detention center literally guarded by alligators and pythons—and Kristi Noem's cash-strapped Department of Homeland Security is making it a priority.
Noem, whose department was accused earlier this month of "spending like drunken sailors" after going $1 billion over budget, announced Monday that she is working at "turbo speed" to turn the plan into reality.
The brainchild of Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, the "Alligator Alcatraz" will consist of tents pitched on a remote Everglades airfield where dangerous wildlife will serve as unpaid prison guards.
The spectacle joins Guantanamo Bay and El Salvador's concentration camp-style COCET facility as venues to hold deportees.
Noem claims the project will be funded by gutting FEMA's disaster relief programs, recycling Trump's thoroughly debunked Hurricane Helene conspiracy theory that Biden "spent disaster money on illegals."
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