'Only way out is deportation': Trump talks tough at Everglades detention site

President Donald Trump on Tuesday pivoted — once again — to illegal immigration by touring a new Florida detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz” as his poll numbers on his signature issue have sunk and congressional Democrats continue slamming his mass deportation program.

Asked if the soon-to-open Everglades facility — so dubbed because of the thousands of alligators that Florida state officials contend surround it — could be a model for other places, Trump responded: “It can be.”

“You don’t always have land so beautiful and so secure. We have a lot of bodyguards and a lot of cops, but in the form of alligators — you don’t have to pay them so much. I wouldn’t want to run through the Everglades for long,” he said. Trump added that he would like to see more detention sites in “many” other states and said some might need to become permanent.

Speaking later at a roundtable, the president flashed his hawkishness on illegal immigration, saying of the detainees who end up there: “The only way out is deportation.”

National politics was on full display Tuesday as Trump, wearing a bright-red “Gulf of America” hat, slammed California Gov. Gavin Newsom while touring the facility in Ochopee, west of Miami.

“The first thing you should do is come here and learn something,” he said of the potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender. “Because they don’t do this, they wouldn’t know where to begin. And if they did it, it would cost them 100 times more.”

What’s more, Trump was joined by two potential presidential hopefuls from his own party: term-limited Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Rep. Byron Donalds, who is running to succeed DeSantis. Donalds has Trump’s backing in his bid to become the state’s first Black governor, while the political class awaits word on whether Florida first lady Casey DeSantis might join him in the primary.

Trump spoke to a group of reporters traveling with him in front of fenced-in beds inside large tents. Some of the fencing was topped with strands of barbed wire.

At points during his visit, Trump said he would approve a Florida request to use National Guard judge advocates to process detainee cases and provide assistance to American farmers who have long employed and want to vouch for undocumented migrants who work for them.

As he departed the White House around 8 a.m. Eastern time, Trump described the need for the “Alligator Alcatraz” facility as “not a nice business.” He used some dark humor to describe what it might be like if a detainee tried to flee: “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,” he said, moving his hand in a zig-zag motion. “And you know what? Your chances go up about 1 percent.”

Once in the Sunshine State, Trump toured the tent city on the site of an abandoned airport, complete with an 11,000-foot runway that will allow detained individuals to be flown to the site.

Trump’s visit came as his poll numbers on immigration, once among his most popular issues, have dipped this year. A June 27-30 Economist-YouGov survey found 50 percent of Americans disapproved of his immigration policies, while 47% approved. And a Fox News poll from mid-June found 53% of registered voters disapproving of Trump’s handling of immigration, while 46% approved.

DeSantis, the Florida governor who ran against Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination, said last week that his administration had begun work at the formerly abandoned Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport after the Trump administration said such a site was needed to help facilitate its mass deportation program.

“We had a request from the federal government to do it, and so ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ it is,” DeSantis said at a news conference.

“Clearly from a security perspective, if someone escapes, there’s a lot of alligators you’re going to have to contend (with),” DeSantis said of the facility located inside the swampy Florida Everglades. “No one is going anywhere once you do that. It’s as safe and secure as you can be.”

Standing with Trump in Florida, DeSantis called on other red states to set up similar detention centers, which, he argued, would help the Trump administration ramp up its deportation numbers.

‘Chilling effect’

Once fully operational, the Florida detention center, which can hold up to 5,000 individuals, will become a key part of a mass deportation effort. New York Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the first formerly undocumented immigrant elected to Congress, is among many Democrats who have questioned that policy.

“I’ve been an eye witness that the mass deportation efforts are not about deporting a violent criminal or violent felon that was found guilty in a court of law, as they should be deported,” Espaillat said at a June 24 House Appropriations markup of the fiscal 2026 Homeland Security spending bill. “It’s ultimately also about green-card holders that are legally here in our country, people that have work permits that were issued by our government so they can motivate the economy and pay taxes.”

“And ultimately, it’s also about U.S. citizens. … This is about people that are here legally, including U.S citizens,” he said, adding that he opposed putting “these agencies on steroids and (giving) them the funding, unrestricted in many ways, to deport U.S. citizens and really (cause) a chilling effect across America that’s hurting our small businesses.”

Protesters in recent days have gathered outside the site to voice concerns that the project would hurt the local environment.

Despite Democrats’ worries and Trump’s underwater poll numbers on immigration, his top aides on Monday were leaning into his policies and the Everglades visit.

“There is only one road leading in and … the only way out is a one-way flight,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a Monday briefing.

The president’s day was not totally focused on the Florida detention facility. As he departed the White House for Florida, Trump fielded several questions about the sweeping budget reconciliation bill, a version of which the Senate narrowly passed later Tuesday as Trump was listening to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speak during the roundtable.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, Trump sidestepped a question about what he would want GOP lawmakers to do if the measure did not pass both chambers. Rather than laying out a Plan B, he said the massive bill would “do OK.” At several points, he predicted it would get to his desk.

Asked if there was a way Republican leaders could assuage Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who had concerns about the bills’ energy and food assistance provisions, Trump suggested she could be unreachable. “Who knows? You tell me. … Is there? Alaska’s done so well with me,” he said. “There’s never been a president better to Alaska than me. But it doesn’t mean people appreciate it.”

Murkowski eventually voted in favor of the final Senate package.

The Florida trip and GOP lawmakers’ methodical work on the reconciliation measure were not unrelated, as Leavitt made clear Monday.

“His trip to this detention facility actually underscores the need to pass the one big, beautiful bill,” she told reporters, “because we need more detention facilities across the country.”

The package would provide new funding for immigration enforcement.

Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, was also out this week trying to turn up the pressure on GOP lawmakers to finish work on the massive bill.

“The reason we have the most secure border in [the] history of this nation (is) because of President Trump’s policy and having (military) assets to assist Border Patrol on the border,” he told reporters at the White House on Monday. “That’s why we have that more secure border, which is why we need the big beautiful bill to pass because that puts more Border Patrol agents on the border, and maybe relieves (military) assets.”

What’s more, he said, passage would mean “more ICE agents on the streets of this country to arrest more public safety threats [and] national security threats.”