TOM LLAMAS: Now to a new migrant detention camp in the Florida Everglades. Officials there are calling it Alligator Alcatraz, suggesting the swamp's wildlife will prevent migrants from escaping. Here’s Gabe Gutierrez.
GABE GUTIERREZ: Tonight construction is underway, deep in the Florida Everglades on a massive migrant detention camp that state officials are calling Alligator Alcatraz. Starting next month, 5,000 migrants will be housed in trailers and heavy duty tents at this remote abandoned airfield.
JAMES UTHMEIER: I call it Alligator Alcatraz.
GUTIERREZ: In a promotional video set to music, Florida's attorney general lays out what he considered a deterrent for any potential escapees.
JAMES UTHMEIER: People get out, there's not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons.
GUTIERREZ: But some local officials warn the environmental impact could be devastating.
DANIELLA LEVINE CAVA:: We have environmental and physical stewardship and safety concerns.
GUTIERREZ: The Trump administration had said it wants to get up to 100,000 beds at detention centers across the country to facilitate mass deportation.s
DONALD TRUMP: A lot of bad people were let into our country. We’re getting them out and we’re getting them out fast.
GUTIERREZ: The Department of Homeland Security says the new facility will cost about $450 million a year, and will be reimbursed in large part by a FEMA program previously used to shelter migrants in places like this hotel in New York City.
Do you think that this is a good idea for your home state?
GREG STEUBE: Well, I 100% support the president's deportation efforts. It's the president's priority to get those individuals out of our country.
GUTIERREZ: But immigrant advocates argue the money has not been set aside by Congress, and…
JESSE FRANZBLAU: The biggest concern is the- is the grave inhumanity that seems to be at stake in terms of sending people to incredibly inhumane, brutal conditions.
GUTIERREZ: An administration official tells NBC news that ICE currently has nearly 60,000 detainees in custody. A record. Tom.
LLAMAS: All right. Gabe Gutierrez, we thank you.
