Deportation flights from Florida's 'Alligator Alcatraz’ detention facility begins
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Deportation flights from Florida's 'Alligator Alcatraz’ detention facility begins")
A Florida Highway Patrol officer looks on as protesters gather to demand the closure of the immigrant detention center known as "Alligator Alcatraz". Photograph: (AFP)
Florida governor DeSantis said they had sent several flights over the past few days.
Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis, said on Friday that deportation flights from the makeshift South Florida immigration detention facility, called Alligator Alcatraz, have commenced.
"What has been done here has been remarkable," he was quoted as saying by CNN.
The temporary detention facility is located in the Everglades, just 50 miles from US President Donald Trump's resort in Miami.
DeSantis said they had sent several flights over the past few days. He said it can hold 2000 detainees, adding that the capacity can be expanded.
Earlier this month, Donald Trump toured the Alligator Alcatraz, where he joked that alligators would serve as guards. The $450 million camp has been built on an abandoned airfield deep in the Florida Everglades and is surrounded by swamps that are home to creatures including alligators and poisonous snakes.
"Very soon this facility will house some of the most menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet," Donald Trump had told reporters.
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"We're surrounded by miles of treacherous swampland and the only way out is deportation," he added.
The name ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ is inspired by Alcatraz Island, the former prison in San Francisco, that Donald Trump recently said he wanted to reopen.
“A lot of bodyguards and a lot of cops in the form of alligators -- you don't have to pay them so much,” Donald Trump said on July 1.
"I wouldn't want to run through the Everglades for long. It will keep people where they're supposed to be," he added.
The facility is built to hold illegal immigrants. Deporting illegal immigrants is one of the prime focuses of Donald Trump's second presidency.
"Alligator Alcatraz" is the latest in a series of measures designed to portray the Trump administration as tough on migration.