Donald Trump’s “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Florida Everglades is not designed exclusively for “illegals,” as the establishment media reports, but rather as a template for a system of concentration camps to intern and disappear political dissidents and others deemed “undesirable” by the ruling political class.

The recently passed and grotesquely titled “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” contains legislation to establish a system of concentration camps. On July 1, the president boasted about the plan. 

“Well, I think we’d like to see them in many states, really, many states. This one, I know Ron’s [Florida governor DeSantis] doing a second one, at least a second one, and probably a couple of more. And, you know, at some point, they might morph into a system where you’re going to keep it for a long time.”

The bill provides $45 billion to establish detention facilities, a 13-fold increase over ICE’s 2024 detention budget, according to a National Immigration Law Center analysis.

“The Trump administration is already counting its chickens, having recently put out a request for bids for contractors using this exact dollar amount.”

Exception for Low-paid Immigrants

Trump’s MAGA base called foul when the president decided to make deportation exceptions for low-paid immigrants working in agriculture, food processing, construction, and hotel industries. 

According to Goldman Sachs, undocumented “immigrants account for 4% to 5% of the total US workforce and between 15% to 20% in industries like crop production, food processing, and construction… [and] abruptly losing a significant share of these workers could be very disruptive for many of these industries.”

On July 3, Trump “signaled deference to farmers in the U.S. who employ migrants illegally in the country, aiming to shield many of them from his administration’s deportation efforts,” thus admitting this effort is political grandstanding directed at his MAGA base. It should be noted that the “farmers” Trump is alluding to are in fact predominately corporate agribusiness operations. 

Significant numbers of undocumented immigrants work in agriculture.

“Approximately 50% of hired farm workers in the U.S. are not legally authorized to work, according to USDA Economic analyses.”  

Additionally, Trump indicated he is willing to allow “Hotel and Leisure” immigrants to avoid deportation.

“I’m on both sides of the thing,” Trump told Fox News. “I’m the strongest immigration guy that there’s ever been, but I’m also the strongest farmer guy that there’s ever been. And that includes also hotels and, you know, places where people work.”

Immigration or Political Dissident Concentration Camps?

According to Pew Research, in December 2024 the Census Bureau estimated the unauthorized immigrant population in the United States grew to 11.0 million in 2022, and of that number approximately 8.3 million were employed. In total, this comprised 5.4% of all U.S. workers. 

Considering Trump’s effort to protect the undocumented workforce and the industries benefiting from low wage labor, the question becomes: why is the federal government planning to substantially increase the number of immigrant detention centers if a significant number of immigrants will not be deported? 

The $45 billion allocated for detention facilities, according to Florida State Rep. Angie Nixon, is not “about safety. This is actually about Donald Trump building modern day concentration camps in an effort to disappear people from our communities.” 

Andrea Pitzer, author of “One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps,” said during an interview the United States has established

“what I would call a concentration camp system… Concentration camps in general have always been designed—at the most basic level—to separate one group of people from another group. Usually, because the majority group, or the creators of the camp, deem the people they’re putting in it to be dangerous or undesirable in some way.”

Prior to the 2024 election, Trump and his political allies began “mapping out specific plans for using the federal government to punish critics and opponents should he win a second term,” according to The Washington Post. During an interview with Univision, Trump confirmed his intention to go after his political enemies. “Trump has been planning to lock up his political opponents since he first ran for office,” Jon Chait told Intelligencer in 2023. 

Before the passage of his “One Big Beautiful Bill,” the Trump administration blueprinted the establishment of internment camps, according to former Customs and Border Patrol agent  J.J. Carrell. Carrell insists the current immigration roundup and internment prior to deportation is a cover story and a public relations stunt. 

Carrell told Clayton Morris of the podcast Redacted the real objective is to intern political enemies. In his documentary “Treason,” Carrell interviews a former federal contractor, Christie Hutcherson. “I believe it’s … kind of like what Nazis did with the Jews, concentration camps, processing facilities. They’re going to need somewhere to process the dissidents,” Hutcherson explains. 

Hutcherson claims to have access to contractor bidding databases operated by the federal government. “She says to me that there are bids for detention facilities being built in all 50 states in America,” Carrell told Morris. 

In April, 2025 the ACLU received documents via a Freedom of Information Act request that reveal the Trump administration plans to expand the federal government’s Customs Enforcement detention centers. 

“The documents received provide important details regarding what we have long feared—a massive expansion of ICE detention facilities nationwide in an effort to further the Trump administration’s dystopian plans to deport our immigrant neighbors and loved ones,” said Eunice Cho, senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s National Prison Project. 

REX 84 and Martial Law

REX 84, a code name for Readiness Exercise 1984, was devised by the Reagan administration in anticipation of a “State of Domestic National Emergency” occurring simultaneously with a direct United States military operation in Central America. Initially, the REX 84 exercise envisioned the roundup of 400,000 undocumented Central American immigrants in the United States by a deputized military. 

The plan entailed the suspension of the Constitution, thereby transferring control of the government to FEMA. It also envisions the appointment of military commanders to oversee state and local governments and the declaration of Martial Law. Notably, the Presidential Executive Orders that supported such a plan were already in effect. The plan, however, is not limited to the internment of Latin Americans. 

“Through Rex-84 an undisclosed number of concentration camps were set in operation throughout the United States, for internment of dissidents and others potentially harmful to the state,” writes Allen L Roland.

According to Roland, writing during the Bush administration, there are “over 800 prison camps in the United States, all fully operational and ready to receive prisoners…  These camps are to be operated by FEMA should martial law need to be implemented in the United States and all it would take is a presidential signature on a proclamation and the attorney general’s signature on a warrant to which a list of names is attached.” 

REX 84 contains at least two sub-programs: Operation Cable Splicer and Garden Plot. The former is intended to control the population, while the latter will operate to ensure an orderly takeover of state and local governments.

The Trump administration has indicated it intends to eliminate FEMA as an agency that responds to natural disasters. The agency was formerly centralized under the Department of Homeland Security.

“The true purpose of FEMA has long been obscured but some disturbing truths have been exposed in the past,” writes Brandon Smith. The declassification of REX 84 “revealed that FEMA was working directly with the Department of Defense on a hypothetical strategy to round up and detain large numbers of civilians considered a ‘threat to national security.’ In other words, FEMA was to act as a tool for helping suppress civil disturbances, it was not necessarily designed to help Americans in times of need.” 

Thus, it should not come as a surprise Trump’s “Alligator Alcatraz” is being “funded largely” by FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program, according to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. In short, Trump’s public relations detention camp in the Florida Everglades is a project established by the Department of Defense. 

Trump’s “Enemies Within”

As noted above, the Trump administration has in large part stepped away from deporting a large number of immigrants employed by agribusiness, hotels, construction, and other industries, as corporations depend on low wage labor to sustain and increase profit. This poses an important yet unaddressed question: why is the Trump administration substantially increasing by 13-fold its budget for detention centers, as indicated in the recently passed “One Big Beautiful Bill”? 

Prior to the election, in October, 2024, Trump told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo,

“I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within… We have some very bad people, some sick people, radical left lunatics… And it should be easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.”

Peter Wade wrote for Rolling Stone at the time, 

Throughout his campaign, Trump has laid out a dystopian vision for America where the military uses violence to detain and deport immigrants, suppress protests, and target criminals. He has used fascistic, violent language and recently repeated his vow to be a “dictator” for “one day” if elected.

Considering this rhetoric and Donald Trump’s malignant narcissist personality, it is not difficult to surmise he will function as a “dictator” to establish concentration camps for the internment of  his political enemies. The infrastructure and legal framework are now in place and Trump’s recently passed legislation is set ot expand and augment what has existed for several decades. 

From the Indian Acts and the Trail of Tears to the internment of Japanese and German Americans during the Second World War and “strategic hamlets” during the Vietnam War in addition to the Guantánamo Bay military prison, there is a solid record of the US government using concentration camps to address what the state views as a political threat to its hold on power. 

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Kurt Nimmo is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).

Featured image: Interior of Alligator Alcatraz, with President Donald Trump in the background (Public Domain)

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