Posted July 3, 2025
It is no secret that Donald Trump has a reputation for cruelty. In that vein, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis could not have come up with a more pleasing gift than a prison for undocumented immigrants located in the Everglades National Park.
Let’s be clear, Alligator Alcatraz—as the prison has been dubbed—is set to become the most inhumane prison in the world.
The Everglades National Park is a vast swamp stretching between Florida’s east and west coasts. It is teeming with massive pythons, alligators, swarms of mosquitos, and panthers. Summer temperatures regularly top the triple digits.
The idea is that, like San Francisco’s notorious Alcatraz, escape from this new dungeon in the swamp will be impossible, and that anyone who tries to leave will be immediately devoured by wild animals or otherwise succumb to the elements.
Who will be detained here? Based on the current pattern of ICE arrests and detentions, most will likely be undocumented immigrants with no criminal past.
Slated to open the first week of July, the site—on a former airstrip claimed from Miami Dade County by DeSantis under emergency powers—will hold up to 5,000 detainees in tents. It is being challenged in court by an alliance of environmental, Indigenous and advocacy groups.
The Everglades is only thirty minutes from the editorial office of Amerikai Népszava, the newspaper I run serving the Hungarian American community. Everyone living here knows that summer in the Everglades brings unbearable heat (104°F), suffocating humidity, a foul stench from the swamp, and clouds of mosquitoes. During the rainy season, there is no tent that can withstand the torrential downpours.
Even without wild animals, the proposed scheme represents uninhabitable, inhumane conditions. In the fall, hurricanes and tornadoes sweep through the Everglades. The first hurricane will tear this tent camp apart, leaving detainees defenseless in the middle of the swamp, surrounded by hungry wildlife. Snakes and alligators will swim in.
And remember, the immigrants that will be imprisoned here are individuals who, under the law, can only be detained, imprisoned, and deported by court order, a fact the Trump Administration seems blithely indifferent to. Nearly half of the 59,000 immigrants now being held under ICE detention have no criminal record.
Data from the Economic Policy Institute, meanwhile, show that the vast majority of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. have lived and worked here for decades. Their labor is indispensable, especially in a state like Florida where agriculture is a significant part of the economy and where up to half the state’s agricultural labor force is undocumented. Headlines show the growing negative impact from Trump’s campaign of mass deportation on local growers.
Still, the cruelty is the point. Alligator Alcatraz will allow Trump to showcase a brutal crackdown on undocumented immigrants, to instill fear that will ultimately compel people to leave the country before they are thrown to the pythons, alligators, or panthers.
This should rightly be considered a crime against humanity.
The Everglades National Park is a protected area. Experts say the prison could destroy the ecosystem and pollute the environment. Indigenous Miccosukee and Seminole tribes live in the Big Cypress National Preserve surrounding the proposed prison site.
Construction has occupied part of the land where these tribes conduct sacred ceremonies and prayers. Republican officials bulldozed it without hesitation. On July 29, hundreds turned out to protest.
In the mid-19th Century the Everglades swamp became a refuge for Indigenous people who refused to be relocated to distant reservations. The Seminoles—led by the famed mid-19th Century fighter Osceola—retreated here after battles, later joined by others similarly displaced by U.S. policy.
A direct descendant of Osceola once stopped the construction of an airport in the swamp. Now his great-grandchildren are protesting again. William “Popeye” Osceola, a former art teacher at the Miccosukee Indian School and now secretary of the Miccosukee tribe, says they are in constant struggle for their land and rights.
Despite resistance, construction is moving at breakneck speed. For his part, DeSantis wants to reap the political benefits of “Alligator Alcatraz” as quickly as he can. As unbelievable as it sounds, the plan was met with thunderous applause among Republicans nationwide. Donations surged. DeSantis has revived his presidential ambitions for 2028.
DeSantis wanted Trump to attend the camp’s opening ceremony on July 1. It appears he got his wish, as Trump reportedly wants to personally inaugurate the world’s most inhumane prison on earth to boost his popularity and intimidate political adversaries.
“Alligator Alcatraz” is emerging as America’s Gulag. And who is to say, as Trump continues to pursue opponents and critics alike, that even American citizens won’t one day end up here?
Laszlo Bartus is owner and editor of Amerikai Nepszava, the nation’s oldest Hungarian-language newspaper based in New York City. This commentary is reproduced with permission by American Community Media.
