Florida has begun construction of a new detention centre for undocumented migrants on a former airfield deep in the Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”

The facility, which will primarily consist of tents, is set to open in July and is expected to cost $450 million per year to operate, according to The New York Times. According to Trisha McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, the state will receive some funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, a Trump supporter, boasted in a social media video that the centre will require minimal additional security due to its remote swampland location, which is home to dangerous wildlife such as alligators and pythons.

“Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide,” The idea is reminiscent of Trump’s own suggestion during his first term to construct a mediaeval moat alongside his still-unfinished southern border wall, complete with deadly creatures.

Trump also proposed painting the wall black and lining it with spikes to increase the intimidation factor.

During his second term, the president has already had undocumented migrants apprehended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents sent to Guantanamo Bay and a maximum-security megaprison in El Salvador, among other places, and has even proposed reopening San Francisco’s original Alcatraz, which is now a tourist attraction, for similar symbolic reasons.

The administration promised to deliver the largest mass deportation push in American history, but has expressed frustration with the slow pace of progress on the ground, despite holding approximately 55,000 people, up from 40,000 during Joe Biden’s previous administration.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are working at breakneck speed to deliver cost-effective and innovative ways to carry out the American people’s mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement supporting the Florida scheme.

However, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava stated on Monday that she needed more time to assess the state’s plans for the land that will house the 5,000-bed Alligator Alcatraz.

“There has not been sufficient time to fully discuss these matters, and we thank you for your attention to these concerns given the rapid pace of the state’s effort,” she wrote in a letter to the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which will be in charge of the centre.

Rachel Johnson, Levine Cava’s deputy chief of staff, told CBS News that the county is “significantly concerned about the environmental impacts on the Everglades, which is the source of our clean drinking water and the cornerstone of our regional economy,” and that a more detailed cost-benefit analysis of the project is needed.

Mark Fleming, associate director of federal litigation at the National Immigrant Justice Centre, expressed concern that the facility could serve as a “independent, unaccountable detention system.”

“The fact that the administration and its allies would even consider such a huge temporary facility on such a short timeline, with no obvious plan for how to adequately staff medical and other necessary services, in the middle of the Florida summer heat is demonstrative of their callous disregard for the health and safety of the human beings they intend to imprison there,” said Mr. Romney.