Florida building Alligator Alcatraz migrant detention centre in Everglades

Florida has begun building a detention centre - dubbed the Alligator Alcatraz - to temporarily hold migrants on an air strip in the Everglades.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the facility would be funded "in large part" by the Federal Emergency Management Agencys shelter and services programme, which was previously used to provide accommodation and other aid for undocumented migrants.

The plan has been criticised by several lawmakers, including the mayor of Miami-Dade County, who argued it could be environmentally "devastating".

The proposal comes as Trump tries to deliver on a campaign pledge to ramp up deportations of illegal migrants.

"Under President Trumps leadership, we are working at turbo speed on cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American peoples mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens," Noem said in a statement.

"We will expand facilities and bed space in just days, thanks to our partnership with Florida."

The facility is to be built on the site of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, a public airport around 58km (36 miles) from Miami. It will cost about $450m (£332m) a year to run.

In a video posted on X, Floridas Attorney General James Uthmeier called the airport a "virtually abandoned facility".

He said the detention centre could be built in 30 to 60 days and hold an estimated 1,000 people.

He argued the location acted as a natural deterrent for escapees.

Uthmeier said in the video: "[If] people, get out, theres not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons. Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide."

The mayor of Miami-Dade County, Daniela Levine Cava, a Democrat, criticised the plan, saying "the impacts to the Everglades ecosystem could be devastating".

The Florida Everglades are a unique environmental region comprising marshes, prairies, forests, mangroves and estuaries. Uthmeier said the facility would not be located within Everglades National Park.