Friday, July 4, 2025

Trump showcases "Alligator Alcatraz"

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This is America

Stories of justice and action across America

Fri Jul 4 2025

Hello, readers, and happy birthday America! We'll be celebrating for the next 365 days.

Savannah Kuchar, Congress and campaigns reporter, here, along with Phillip M. Bailey, Chief Political Correspondent.

When he wasn't spending time twisting arms in Congress, President Donald Trump took a trip to southern Florida this week for the opening of so-called "Alligator Alcatraz."

The temporary detention center, which Democrats have described as interment camps, is expected to cost $450 million annually and house about 5,000 persons − namely migrant detainees.

Located about 37 miles from Miami and surrounded by an area filled with alligators, pythons and crocodiles, the Everglades facility is a manifestation of Trump's hardline immigration policies

•	"This is not a nice business," Trump said before departing to Florida. "Snakes are fast but alligators ‒ we're going to teach them how to run away from an alligator."
•	"Don't run in a straight line," he added, waving his hand in a back-and-forth motion. "Run like this."

U.S. President Donald Trump visits a temporary migrant detention center informally known as "Alligator Alcatraz" in Ochopee, Florida, U.S., July 1, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

Evelyn Hockstein, REUTERS

See more photos of the facility.

Here's what else we're reading:

•	Can Alligator Alcatraz weather a Hurricane? Not a major one
•	A 6-year-old boy with leukemia is being held in immigration detention. He's been threatened with deportation.
•	Can border agents search your social media? What to know.

Let's stick with the ramifications of the president's illegal immigration crackdown, which polling shows the public has soured on a bit in recent weeks.

Remember Kilmar Abrego Garcia? The 30-year-old native of El Salvador who was living in Beltsville, Maryland before he was mistakenly deported and taken to CECOT in March?

New court records indicate his experienced "severe beatings" and was "psychological torture" in that notorious high-security foreign prison. The filing in federal court on July 2 alleges Abrego Garcia also experienced "severe sleep deprivation" and nutrition so inadequate that he lost 31 pounds.

Something like this is only likely to further heighten outrage about the administration's actions among Trump's critics. Booting undocumented immigrants from the country remains a strong source of his popularity, but even before these filings a pair of surveys showed that support could be beginning to weaken nationally.

Jennifer Vasquez Sura, wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, wipes a tear after speaking at the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition headquarters regarding her husband's release hearing Wednesday, June 25, 2025 in Nashville, Tenn.

Mark Zaleski / The Tennessean, Mark Zaleski / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted June 21-23 revealed 49% of respondents said the country was headed in the wrong direction on immigration, with a 43% overall approval of the president's policies on the subject.

In a Quinnipiac University poll released June 26 showed 41% approved of his immigration policies compared to 57% who disapproved and support of deportations was even lower with 39% approving and 59% disapproving.