'Preposterous': Dem slams 'Alligator Alcatraz' self deportation claims
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) on Tuesday slammed claims that "Alligator Alcatraz" will cause immigrants to self-deport.
Earlier in the day, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem warned immigrants that they should "self-deport," otherwise they risk the chance of being sent to the 3,000-bed facility in the Florida Everglades. Florida's Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis also described the facility as a deterrent for illegal immigration.
Schultz joined "The Source with Kaitlan Collins" later that evening to push back on their claims.
"That's preposterous!" Schultz exclaimed. "We have people who have come to this country, fled the worst circumstances, the most dangerous conditions, oppression, they're trekking across the continent. And he thinks that housing them in a tent in the middle of the Everglades is going to be too much for them and they're going to self-deport?"
Alligator Alcatraz has become a focal point in the Trump administration's efforts to deport millions of immigrants. Some critics have said the facility is inhumane, while Trump supporters have pushed back on those claims.
To Wasserman Schultz, the facility's biggest impact lies outside of its walls. Over the past few decades, the federal government has spent billions restoring the Everglades. All of that effort could be thrown away once the facility opens, she said.
"This is not only dangerous. We have spent 25 years investing billions of dollars restoring the Florida Everglades, and they're dropping a lot of infrastructure, electricity, piping, water, right in the middle of all of that effort," Wasserman Schultz continued. "It's going to upend decades of environmental restoration. That is unacceptable."