US President Donald Trump steps up his crackdown on migrants in the US with a speedy construction of a temporary detention centre in Florida that he urges other states to follow suit. The measures will receive monetary boost if the Big Beautiful Bill is signed into law. The US Senate passed the bill on Tuesday, July 1 and Trump now hopes to sign it into law before Fourth of July.
1 / 7During his campaign, Trump had pledged to deport as many as 1 million people per year. Now in a bid to showcase he is making good on the promise, the administration is set to open a temporary detention centre to deport migrants it says were wrongly allowed to stay in the country during former President Joe Biden’s administration. (Image: Reuters)
2 / 7On Tuesday (July 1), Trump toured the newly-built migrant detention center nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz” for its location in subtropical wetlands of Florida and surrounding wildlife. It was built at the site of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Florida. The 5000-bed facility is estimated to cost $450 million annually, officials told Reuters. (Image: Reuters)
3 / 7Images show rows of bunk beds in caged enclosures. Trump praised quick construction of the facility and repeatedly emphasised other US states to follow suit and construct similar detention centres. At a roundtable event after his tour, Trump said, “We’re surrounded by miles of treacherous swampland and the only way out is really deportation.” (Image: Reuters)
4 / 7Trump was joined by US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at the roundtable event, where she recounted a disturbing story involving US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). She claimed that agents had detained a cannibal aboard a deportation flight who began eating himself while restrained in his seat, prompting medical intervention. The anecdote appeared aimed at reinforcing the Trump administration’s hardline stance on immigration by casting migrants in a criminal light. (Image: Reuters)
5 / 7Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Trump’s past rival, took part in touring the detention centre. The governor used emergency powers to take control of Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport from Miami-Dade County and fastrack the construction. (Image: Reuters)
6 / 7Meanwhile, demonstrators took to the streets at the entrance of the detention centre in protest of the newly-built facility as well as administration’s targeted campaign against migrant communities. Protestors held signboards demanding abolition of ICE and justice for migrants in the US.
7 / 7Meanwhile, the US Senate passed Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill that he wants to sign into law by July 4 Independence Day. The massive tax-cut and spending bill will boost military and immigration enforcement spending. The bill earmarks $46.6 billion toward construction of a wall on the US-Mexico border and $45 billion for immigration detention, among other things.
