AMY GOODMAN: Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, I want to bring into this conversation an activist in Florida. President Trump toured the new immigration jail in the Florida Everglades, flanked by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, what he’s calling “Alligator Alcatraz,” a hastily built camp on an isolated airfield in the Everglades with massive tents that hold immigrants in cages with multiple bunk beds, Trump mocking the jailed immigrants, saying they’d have to learn how to fight alligators in order to escape the jail, surrounded by alligators, pythons and other Everglades wildlife. In fact, I think he said it’ll cost less to control them, because you don’t have to pay the alligators. The detention camp is expected to have a detention capacity for 5,000 people. At a press conference, Trump claimed the immigrants who would be held at the site would be some of the, quote, “most vicious people on the planet.”

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It’s known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” which is very appropriate, because I looked outside, and that’s not a place I want to go hiking anytime soon. But very soon, this facility will house some of the most menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet. We’re surrounded by miles of treacherous swampland, and the only way out is really deportation.

AMY GOODMAN: The Florida attorney general coined the nickname “Alligator Alcatraz.” He posted a promotional video about the jail in June, scored with hard rock music, including a graphic that shows an alligator with red eyes.

ATTORNEY GENERAL JAMES UTHMEIER: [The governor] tasked state leaders to identify places for new temporary detention facilities. I think this is the best one, as I call it, Alligator Alcatraz. This 30-square-mile area is completely surrounded by the Everglades, presents a efficient, low-cost opportunity to build a temporary detention facility, because you don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter. If people get out, there’s not much waiting for them, other than alligators and pythons. Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide.

AMY GOODMAN: Attorney General Uthmeier is also selling “Alligator Alcatraz” merchandise on his website. On his tour of the site, President Trump repeatedly echoed the idea the jail would be secured by alligators and snakes.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You know, snakes are fast, but alligators are much — we’re going to teach them how to run away from an alligator, OK, if they escape prison. How to run away: Don’t run in a straight line. Run like this. And you know what? Your chances go up about 1%, OK? Not a good thing. …

You have a lot of bodyguards, you have a lot of cops, that are in the form of alligators. You don’t have to pay them so much. But I wouldn’t want to run through the Everglades for long. It will keep people where they’re supposed to be. This is a very important thing.

AMY GOODMAN: As this new Everglades jail is built and other expansions in Florida are being discussed, Florida is leading the nation in immigrant detention deaths. Isidro Pérez, a 75-year-old man from Cuba who had lived most of his life, 60 years, in the United States, died last week in ICE custody. He was held at the Krome Detention Center in Miami. As the Trump administration pushes for 3,000 arrests a day and detention numbers reach historic levels, at least 13 people have died while in ICE detention this year.

For more about the Everglades jail and immigration detention, we’re joined by Nery Lopez in Florida, senior organizer with Detention Watch Network, also an organizer with the Florida Detention Coalition.

Nery, thanks so much for being with us. There were major protests outside as Trump was touring the jail. If you can talk about what your governor, Governor DeSantis, has called a one-stop shop, because the jail is on an airfield, and people can be detained, then deported immediately?

NERY LOPEZ: Yes, it’s truly inhumane, what’s happening. And this new build of a detention center in the middle of the Everglades is going to isolate people tremendously. It’s going to have an increase of conditions like overcrowding and hot temperatures and also a lack of food. There’s going to be so many transfers, that’s going to cut people from their loved ones and their support networks.

AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about how this all came about. Talk about your major concerns right now, who’s being held there, and also the deaths in ICE detention.

NERY LOPEZ: Yes. So, as we found out that this was happening, people were, of different sectors, like environmentalists, our folks who are in the Everglades area from the Miccosukee and Seminole tribes, and community of immigrant folks — have been absolutely just heartbroken that this is happening here. And as we were finding it out, it was truly just something that is making it harder for people to see the vibrant community of Florida, right? This is not part of Florida’s values. People are resisting. We are seeing protests happening there, where they are seeing for themselves just what is happening. And the fact that they’re building this tent building in the middle of the Everglades is truly inhumane.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to bring Aaron Reichlin-Melnick back into the conversation, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council. You have deaths in ICE detention. And you have congressmembers all over the country, from Colorado to New Jersey to New York to California, attempting to inspect these often private detention facilities, and they are prevented from doing so. And most recently, the president said he can prevent these congressmembers from moving in. Can you explain what’s going on there, the oversight that they were empowered with, not being allowed to carry it out?

AARON REICHLIN-MELNICK: Yeah, for multiple years, Congress has written into the appropriations law a provision that says that any member of Congress may perform a surprise inspection at any facility used to detain people for the Department of Homeland Security. So, when a member of Congress goes to a detention center, by law, they should be allowed in. And in fact, the law expressly says that they cannot be told that they have to make an appointment, only their staff. But, unfortunately, we’ve now seen the Trump administration say, “Well, due to operational concerns, we are going to force members to actually make an appointment ahead of time,” even though the law says they are not allowed to do that.

This is happening as the detention infrastructure has skyrocketed, and the administration is holding 59,000 people in detention, despite Congress having budgeted only for 41,500. And given their overcrowding that we are seeing in detention facilities, the lack of medical staff, oversight is needed now more than ever, but it’s becoming harder to do.

AMY GOODMAN: Let me ask Nery Lopez about President Trump, during his tour of the Everglades jail, saying he would approve a plan by Florida Governor DeSantis to speed up deportations by deputizing National Guard members to work as immigration judges. I want to repeat that: deputizing National Guard as immigration judges. Talk about the significance of this.

NERY LOPEZ: This is so dangerous. What we’re seeing is just something that we haven’t seen before. It’s — National Guards don’t have a background in immigration law. And so, this is only going to create more deportations. It is going to create more separation of families, that people are not going to understand what’s happening. And it’s truly just very scary. It is not the values of Florida. It’s not the values of our country to have National Guards posing as judges.

AMY GOODMAN: What is popular opinion, Nery, in Florida right now? I mean, we know that, overall — you know, Trump calls it the “big, beautiful bill”; so many people are calling it the “big, ugly, terrible bill” — that it has just hit new lows in terms of popular support, even among Republicans around the country. What about in Florida?

NERY LOPEZ: People don’t want ICE. People don’t want ICE, don’t want people detained. People who are being detained are mothers. They’re church members. They’re people in the community, everyday, working people. And we don’t want ICE in our area. We don’t want detention centers here. They are not helping our economy. It’s not helping our community who are here doing different types of jobs. And the fact that this $45 billion funding, ICE funding, is going to detain 100,000 people more is truly just very dangerous and very scary for so many people.

AMY GOODMAN: So, what happens now? And in terms of Florida politics, I mean, it was unusual, Nery, to see President Trump standing with Florida Governor DeSantis. They were — ran against each other for president. They became very alienated. You have DeSantis wanting his wife to run for governor. President Trump has supported Congressman Donalds. As we wrap up, how does this play into state politics?

NERY LOPEZ: Yeah, Trump’s and Governor DeSantis’s cruel detention expansion is only going to exasperate so much confusion and fear into people. It’s actually going to make a lot of people realize what’s happening here and pay attention to the state politics. Once elections happen for governor and elected officials who are backing this agenda, it’s going to affect them, as well, because people will be out there voting. People are realizing that this is happening here, and they are in the know of immigration detention now. People are starting to actually be knowledgeable of what’s happening and want to know. And this is only going to make more people go out to vote. It’s going to make people be calling their representatives, because people power is here, and we are able to make a difference. And they can’t — they can’t keep doing this. They will not keep doing this without people raising their voice.

AMY GOODMAN: Nery Lopez, I want to thank you for being with us, Detention Watch Network, speaking to us from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Aaron Reichlin-Melnick in Washington, D.C., with the American Immigration Council.

When we come back, we go to Los Angeles, where armed, masked federal agents have carried out arrests in communities across the city. Families and immigrant advocates say they’re struggling to find their disappeared loved ones. And ICE has arrested yet another U.S. citizen. Back in 20 seconds.

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AMY GOODMAN: “Dear Someone” by Lila Downs in our Democracy Now! studio.