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Florida’s Attorney General James Uthmeier derided Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other “communist members of Congress” as he promoted the state’s forthcoming “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center, challenging protesters to find the facility in the dense swampland of the Everglades.
The construction of the center on the disused, 17,000 acre Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport west of Miami was announced earlier this week, with Uthmeier gloating in a social media video that it will require minimal additional security due to its remote location, which is home to such dangerous wildlife as alligators and pythons.
The facility will consist largely of tents, open in July and be able to house up to 5,000 people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, running at a cost of $450m a year.
Championing the initiative during an appearance on the Newsmax show Carl Higbie Frontline, Uthmeier said: “I tell you, AOC and some of these communist members of Congress, if they want to come and cry in front of this detention center, good luck finding it. It’s right in the middle of the Everglades.”
The new detention center was also cheered by Laura Ingraham on Fox News, who hosted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on her show on Wednesday night and told him she “loved the whole concept.”
DeSantis told the MAGA loyalist: “The reason why we’re doing this is ’cause we want to increase deportations, and what ICE has told us is that even though all my sheriffs and police are working constructively to apprehend illegals, they just need more space because when you bring illegals in, they have to process them.
“There’s a little bit of a process that goes into that and so this is really a force multiplier where we’ll be able to temporarily detain the illegals so that the federal government can deport them to their home countries.”
After assuring Ingraham that the Everglades would suffer no environmental damage as a result of its construction, he continued: “What it will do is, it’ll be secure, it will not be interfering with Floridians, it will take pressure off our jails in Florida – because we obviously have normal criminals too – and so it’s gonna be a force multiplier for the feds.
“They’ve asked us to do this and we’re stepping up, and I think it will lead to more deportations. I really do.”
Meanwhile, Uthmeier’s mockery of the New York progressive congresswoman is red meat to conservative cable news broadcasters, who routinely portray her as the personification of “woke” leftist values.
Explaining the origins of the project, the AG said: “The governor tasked our state leaders to do anything possible to help President Trump detain and deport illegal immigrants. An ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ is one way we’re going to do it.”
Uthmeier praised Trump for his hardline immigration stance on the show, telling Higbie: “I tell you what, just last week we pulled more MS-13 members off the streets in Orlando. The week before, I announced a lifetime conviction of a criminal alien sex trafficker.
“Thank God we have a president that’s enforcing the law, that’s protecting American families. And we’re going to do everything we can to help them.”
