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This is an adapted excerpt from the July 5 episode of "Velshi."
Welcome to the new American dystopia, where alligators are cops and humans are treated like animals. This may sound like an allegory dreamed up by George Orwell, but unfortunately this is reality in Donald Trump’s America.
Last week, the White House shared what appeared to be an AI-generated image of alligators sporting Immigration and Customs Enforcement hats, with Trump standing alongside them. The image was accompanied by the text “Alligator Alcatraz: Make America Safe Again.”
As Uthmeier proudly puts it, it’s a “one-stop shop to carry out President Trump’s mass deportation agenda.”
The post was in reference to a new migrant detention center in Florida that has been dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.” Located on an isolated 39-square-mile airfield, surrounded by deadly wetlands and the predators of the marshy Everglades, the facility did not even exist until very recently. It was hastily constructed in a matter of days.
According to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the facility will have the capacity to accommodate about 3,000 detainees when it’s fully operational. The first group of migrant detainees arrived on Wednesday.
Florida’s attorney general, James Uthmeier, said the facility will mostly consist of tents and trailers with no brick-and-mortar construction required, which seems not great considering Florida’s stifling summer heat and notorious humidity and a hurricane season that’s predicted to be even worse than in past years.
The roughly 11,000-foot airstrip, which has been primarily used for training purposes, will serve as a private airport to fly detainees into the facility and ship them out on deportation flights. As Uthmeier proudly put it, it’s a “one-stop shop to carry out President Trump’s mass deportation agenda.”
As for security, according to The Associated Press, the facility will be equipped with more than 200 security cameras, more than 28,000 feet of barbed wire and 400 security personnel. But Trump, DeSantis and other proponents of “Alligator Alcatraz” are counting on the isolation of the area and its natural habitat to further boost security. That’s where the alligator cops come in.
Last week, Trump bragged that the facility had “a lot of cops that are in the form of alligators,” adding: “You don’t have to pay them so much.” When asked about detainees’ possibly escaping, the president told reporters that migrants would learn how to “run away from an alligator.”
Benny Johnson, a MAGA social media influencer, traveled to the site last week. “Check out this Jurassic Park style entrance,” Johnson wrote alongside a video of the detention center's exterior. “30 foot walls, razor wire, armed guards. None of this existed a week ago. Insanity impressive from the state of Florida.”
These potentially torturous conditions for undocumented immigrants are also being monetized — and it’s as depraved as you can imagine. Late last month, the Republican Party of Florida pushed out a campaign email, writing in part: “The feds have greenlit Alligator Alcatraz — Florida’s gator-guarded, python-patrolled prison for illegal aliens who thought they could game the system. Surrounded by miles of swamp and bloodthirsty wildlife, this ain’t no vacation spot.” There’s also the option to “snag your swag.” For just $15, you can have your very own “Alligator Alcatraz” beer koozie.
There’s nothing funny about this. This is a sadistic glorification of human pain and suffering. These policies, and the celebration of them, are meant to impose incredible anguish on thousands of humans.
If you think they’re just going to target the most dangerous criminals, think again. From the start, the Trump administration has said ICE would focus on the “worst of the worst.” But according to an analysis by The Washington Post, “more than half of those removed from the country since Jan. 20 do not have a criminal conviction. What’s more, as arrests increase, the share of detained migrants with a criminal conviction has been dropping.”
One thing we’ve learned about the Trump administration is that what it says is terrible, but what it actually means is somehow even worse. Late last month, Laura Loomer, far-right provocateur and Trump ally, posted to social media, “Alligator lives matter. The good news is, alligators are guaranteed at least 65 million meals if we get started now.”
There’s no mincing words here: The cruelty is the point.
That’s quite a specific number. It’s also the total population of Hispanic people in the United States, according to the U.S. census. Loomer claimed she was referring to 65 million undocumented immigrants in the country. However, even the harshest immigration critics can’t come up with a fraction of that number.
You may agree that our immigration system needs fixing — it does — and you may agree that criminals should be off the streets, but locking away immigrants in a swamp surrounded by alligators, masked ICE agents’ snatching people off the streets, detaining people who show up to their legally mandated immigration hearings and lionizing it all along the way? That is barbaric.
These are human beings, whether they’re criminals, immigrants or otherwise. This is not how civilized societies act.
There’s no mincing words here: The cruelty is the point. If a group of people is being relentlessly dehumanized, the public will start to believe those people do not deserve to be treated like humans. As history tells us, that is a recipe for disaster. This is not us. This is not America.