Trump tours ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ detention center in Florida

(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump applauded Florida’s controversial immigration detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” as it opened Tuesday.

The center, fast-tracked by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, is located deep in the state’s Everglades wetlands on the site of the abandoned Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in the Big Cypress National Preserve.

The immigrant facility has garnered backlash from human rights and ecological activists alike.

When asked about potential environmental damage, Trump said: “We’ll be gone a million years, and this land will still be here … I think it was a brilliant choice, and I think almost anybody in his or her right mind would say this was a brilliant choice.”

Noem, DeSantis praise detention center at visit

The development is “exactly what I want every single governor in this country to consider doing with us,” said Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

DeSantis called the facility’s remote footprint a “perfectly secure location,” adding that the center will be will open as soon as Trump departs on Air Force One on Tuesday.

The so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” will include temporary structures such as heavy-duty tents and trailers to house detained immigrants. Florida has estimated that it will soon have 5,000 immigration detention beds in operation.

Noem also pushed for self-deportation during the visit: “You can still go home on your own. You can self-deport … if you don’t, you may end up here.”

Florida officials detail ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ facility

Kevin Guthrie, executive director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, told reporters Tuesday that the facility can withstand high Category 2 Hurricane winds, up to 110 mph.

“We have a hurricane plan … we have onsite fire and EMS resources, so that we don’t burden the locals with any type of response,” Guthrie said.

Officials added that the facility has more than 158,000 square feet of housing, a fully aluminum frame structure, back-up generators, more than 200 security cameras and more than 28,000 feet of barbed wire.

All of that, officials emphasized, is surrounded by 10 miles of Florida Everglades.

Environmental groups, human rights activists oppose ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

Environmental groups fear the site will harm the Everglades’ ecosystem, which is teeming with massive reptiles, including alligators and Burmese pythons.

The ill-fated airport originally planned for the space was abandoned in 1970 after an environmental report warned building a massive airport in the Everglades would “lead to land drainage and development for agriculture, transportation, and services in the Big Cypress Swamp which will inexorably destroy the south Florida ecosystem and thus the Everglades National Park,” according to the National Park Service.

Some Native American leaders claim the center encroaches on sacred land. There are 15 traditional Miccosukee and Seminole villages, as well as ceremonial and burial grounds and other gathering sites, in Big Cypress National Preserve, where the airstrip is located.

Human rights activists have called the facility inhumane and raised issues with potentially thousands of people being housed in temporary tents and trailers during Florida’s hurricane season.

DHS decries ‘lazy’ lawsuit to halt ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ opening

Environmental groups late Friday filed a last-minute lawsuit to halt the facility’s opening.

The Department of Homeland Security has also backed the detention center, calling the lawsuit “lazy,” and adding that it “ignores the fact that this land has already been developed for a decade.”

Florida is also working to open a second processing center at Camp Blanding, a National Guard training base, officials confirmed at Tuesday’s event.

NewsNation’s Anna Kutz and the Associated Press contributed to this report.