Trump visited the facility together with Kristi Noem, minister for national security, and Florida's governor Ron DeSantis. The facility is located on a partially abandoned airport in the middle of the Everglades swamp area, seven miles west of Miami.
For the time being, 3,000 migrants can be received, but it is intended to be able to accommodate 5,000.
Many police officers here in the form of alligators – you don't have to pay them that much, said Trump to journalists on site.
A role model
It was Governor DeSantis who in 2023 decided to build the facility. This with reference to what he and President Donald Trump claim is an emergency situation when it comes to the number of undocumented migrants in the USA.
Trump says that the facility can become a role model for other states.
We are surrounded by miles of treacherous swamp and the only real way out is deportation, said Trump.
Carrying out mass deportations of migrants who are staying illegally in the country was one of Trump's most prominent election promises. The President has repeatedly accused undocumented migrants of violent crimes and drug smuggling and promised to deport them.
Protests against the facility
Hundreds of demonstrators – human rights activists, environmental activists, and representatives of the indigenous people – have in recent days demonstrated outside the facility.
They claim, among other things, that it is inhumane to force undocumented migrants to live in a swamp in the middle of the hot summer.
DeSantis, on the other hand, has hinted that the facility at the airport is just the beginning and that several similar facilities can be built in Florida.
Everglades is on the UNESCO World Heritage list and is known, in addition to alligators and snakes, for its rich bird life.
