Inside Trump's Alligator Alcatraz as president says he wants to see 'more' of them built
Donald Trump's new detention centre for immigrants rounded up by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been called 'Alligator Alcatraz'.
That's seriously what they're calling it, in part because the Trump administration is boasting that the jail is surrounded by 10 miles of Florida wetlands infested by alligators.
If anyone did manage to escape from the place, they'd face a lengthy trek across marshy ground and the prospect of being eaten alive.
As such, the place has drawn serious criticism, along with the speed at which Trump boasts they built it, as his claim that Alligator Alcatraz was put together in eight days.
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According to Sky News, footage posted on social media showed electric cables lying in water after a recent storm at the detention centre, while the state department insisted Alligator Alcatraz was built to withstand category two hurricanes.
Florida is often struck by hurricanes which are rated as category three or higher, and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) says Alligator Alcatraz is located in a part of the state that is prone to hurricanes.
Trump toured inside the facility on 1 July, being shown around the internment camp that is designed to hold thousands of immigrants who have been seized by ICE.
Opened with a capacity to hold 3,000 people, Alligator Alcatraz is expected to be expanded until there are enough cages to hold 5,000 people.
During his visit to the facility, in which Trump saw the cages people would be kept in, he said he would like to see internment camps like Alligator Alcatraz opening up across 'many states'.
The US president also gave the Florida National Guard the thumbs up to serve as immigration judges and spoke out against the people who would be interned in Alligator Alcatraz.
He said: "Pretty soon, this facility will handle the most menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet.
"The only way out, really, is deportation."
Located about 50 miles west of Miami, there have been protests outside the facility from people who object to the conditions people will be kept in at the camp.
Trump joked that the immigrants who would be detained there under heavily criticised conditions would have to learn to avoid alligators if they escaped.
"We’re going to teach them how to run away from an alligator if they escape prison. Don’t run in a straight line. Run like this," Trump said as he moved his hand in a zig-zag motion.
"And you know what? Your chances go up about one percent."
Should you ever find yourself incarcerated in Alligator Alcatraz and escape the internment camp, then the expert opinion on avoiding alligators is actually to run in one direction.
Alligators can move on land at speeds of up to 35mph for short bursts of speed, so you need to put as much distance between it and you rather than faffing around with zig-zagging.
On 3 July, US Officials bragged that the first immigrants had been taken to Alligator Alcatraz, and NBC Miami reports that some of the people incarcerated in the camp have been speaking out.
Cuban artist Leamsy Izquierdo, who had been taken to the camp on 4 July, said he hadn't been able to shower in four days as there was 'no water here to bathe'.
He said he thought there were around 400 people caged in the camp and said 'they give you food only once a day, food that even has worms in it'.
A Colombian detainee said he'd been kept at Alligator Alcatraz for three days without his medication.
Trump has previously deported immigrants, many of which entered the US entirely legally according to The Guardian, to the El Salvador mega-jail CECOT.
Topics: Donald Trump, US News
Joe Harker