WASHINGTON (Gray DC) – Just weeks after the controversial immigration detention facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz” opened in Florida, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said that a similar facility is being built in his state.
“I expect that there will be detention facilities like the so-called ‘Alligator Alcatraz.’ We’ve yet to come up with a similar, similarly attractive name in Texas. But I know at Fort Bliss, out in El Paso, that there is a facility being built right now,” said Sen. Cornyn.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R-TX) wrote on X that facility will be “the LARGEST illegal immigrant detention center.”
According to the Department of Defense, the 5,000-bed facility is being built over the next two years in El Paso, specifically to support President Donald Trump’s executive order titled, “Protecting the American People Against Invasion.”
The Sunshine State’s immigration detention facility opened earlier this month in the Florida Everglades. It sparked praise from Republicans and alarm from Democrats.
“I rise today to shine light on a moral atrocity going on in my home state of Florida,” said Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) back on July 16. “…A place where nearly 1,000 humans are being forced to live in a tent city in the middle of the hot Florida summer hot sun, where folks are not getting enough food. Detainees are exposed to the heat. Wildlife, mosquitoes that can potentially carry disease. Stripped of their civil rights and as of this past Saturday, cut off from legal counsel.”
Sen. Cornyn said the detention centers are needed and will be overseen by Congress. He also pushed back on the claims of inhumane conditions.
“That’s not true, the way that some people are claiming,” said the senator. “These are clean, humane and safe facilities for detention of people who are illegally present in the first place. There’s going to be plenty of opportunity for oversight, by the administration and by Congress to make sure of that.”
During a press conference back on July 12, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said that discussions about more immigration detention centers are ongoing in other states.
“We’re looking at other locations as well. We’ve had several other states that are actually using Alligator Alcatraz as a model for how they can partner with us as well,” she said.
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