President Donald Trump visited a newly built migrant detention center located deep within the Florida Everglades, which has been dubbed ‘Alligator Alcatraz.’ He praised its secluded, secure design and announced that it would soon accommodate what he described as ‘the most dangerous migrants, the most ferocious individuals on the planet.’

‘It’s certainly not a place I’d choose for a hike anytime soon,’ Trump remarked. ‘This facility will shortly be home to some of the most dangerous migrants, the most vicious individuals in the world. It’s surrounded by endless swamp land, and the only way out is through deportation.’

The president seemed visibly satisfied with the facility’s arrangement during his visit, noting piles of bunk beds behind chain-link fences within an air-conditioned tent in a Florida swamp.

The president said any migrant being processed into the facility who wanted to return to their home country would be allowed to do so. And he said he would be making a decision on exempting farm workers and construction workers in the next few weeks. 

‘We’re going to take care of our farmers, hotel workers and various other people. We are working on it now,’ Trump said during his tour. ‘We have a great feeling for the farmer and others in the same position and give them responsibility for people. We’ll have a system of signing them up so they don’t have to go. They can be here legally. They can pay taxes and everything else. They aren’t getting citizenship but they get other things.’

He also bragged about his own record on removing illegal immigrants from the country and got in an insult to his predecessor, President Joe Biden.

‘Biden wanted me in here,’ Trump said, gesturing around the tent. ‘It didn’t work out that way. He wanted me in here.’

Trump has long claimed his Democratic rivals wanted to ‘lock him up’ and that he is the victim of a government conspiracy.

On his tour Tuesday, he was accompanied Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – with whom he had a bitter rivalry in the 2024 Republican presidential primary – and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

The president said he and DeSantis now had a strong relationship.

‘It’s a ten, 9.9. A couple little wounds. I think we have a 10. We get along great,’ he said.

DeSantis echoed his remarks: ‘You can call him at any time and he wants to be helpful for governors. I can tell you that.’

Trump, tieless and wearing a red ‘Gulf of America’ hat, arrived at the facility’s airstrip – the same route migrants will enter and exit the facility – on a hot, steamy Florida day. 

An alligator was spotted swimming near the detention center ahead of Trump’s arrival. Migrants will be brought in after the presidential visit. 

Democrats have slammed the facility as a ‘makeshift prison camp,’ while environmentalists have questioned its impact on the local climates and Native Americans protested it being built on sacred ground.

The controversial detention facility was spearheaded by Florida Republican leaders and garnered its nickname due to its location: it sits about 37 miles from Miami in the middle of a swamp surrounded by snakes and alligators — and in an area of the state that is prone to hurricanes.

Trump praised the facility.

‘We’re arresting the worst of the worst,’ he told reporters in Florida. ‘We’re getting these monsters out of the United States, out of Florida, out of all the places that they are in.’

Democrats railed against the facility and environmental groups have sued to try and stop its opening. 

‘It’s like a theatricalization of cruelty,’ Maria Asuncion Bilbao, Florida campaign coordinator at the immigration advocacy group American Friends Service Committee told the Associated Press.

Rep. Maxwell Frost, a Democrat from Orlando, called the facility a ‘makeshift prison camp.’

Trump is bringing even more attention to it with his visit. 

He also was joined by Rep. Byron Donalds, whom Trump endorsed to replace the term-limited DeSantis. That endorsement came as DeSantis wife, Casey, is mulling her own gubernatorial bid.

DeSantis greeted the president at the airport and Trump told him he did a ‘great job’ on the facility. 

The president, ahead of his departure, told reporters the trip will be ‘very exciting and very good.’ 

And he showed he was ready for any potential animal danger.

Trump said the inmates will be taught how to run away from the alligators that inhabit the area.

‘You know, the snakes are fast, but alligators, 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. Look like this,’ he told reporters on the South Lawn as snaked his hand back-and-forth in a zig zag pattern.

‘And you know what? Your chances go up about 1%. Not a good thing,’ he said.

It’s a quick trip and Trump will return to the White House on Tuesday afternoon to continue to push the Senate to pass his ‘big, beautiful bill’ that will fund the government.

The $450 million-per-year detention facility, which will be able to hold up to 3,000 undocumented immigrants, was built in just seven days. 

There are only tents and trailers – no brick-or-mortar buildings. It was constructed on land belonging to Miami-Dade County and seized by state officials over local leaders’ objections. 

It sits next to an 11,000 foot airstrip. DeSantis said the runway there can be used to quickly fly undocumented immigrants to third countries if deportation is deemed appropriate. 

‘You’ll be able to bring people in, they’ll get processed, they have an order of removal, then they can be queued and the federal government can fly — right on the runway, right there, you literally drive them 2,000 feet, put them on a plane and then they’re gone,’ DeSantis said.

The center has 1,000 people staffing it and is surrounded by security cameras. The Florida National Guard will mobilize roughly 100 troops to help with the facility.

Native American groups also have protested the facility, noting it was built in an area they consider their sacred ancestral homeland.

Safety concerns have also been raised. 

With the migrants housed in tents and trailers, they will be surrounded by 200,000 alligators, along with non-indigenous predators like pythons and a family of panthers. 

Pressed by the Daily Mail on Monday whether the dangerous animals were a design feature, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt responded: ‘When you have illegal murderers and rapists and heinous criminals in a detention facility surrounded by alligators, yes, I do think that’s a deterrent for them to try to escape.’ 

The Trump administration has expressed its pride in the facility and argued it will help its goal of the mass deportation of migrants. 

‘There is only one road leading in, and the only way out is a one-way flight; it is isolated and surrounded by dangerous wildlife and unforgiving terrain,’ Leavitt noted. ‘This is an efficient and low-cost way to help carry out the largest mass deportation campaign in American history.’ 

Trump campaigned against removing migrants, making it a signature piece of his presidential bid. 

He’s also been an admirer of other hardcore detention facilities such as Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and El Salvador’s mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center.