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Border czar Tom Homan slammed lawmakers for criticizing the conditions of “Alligator Alcatraz” — the nation’s newest detention center — while remaining “silent” about the migrant death toll under former President Joe Biden.
“Alligator Alcatraz,” which was constructed in the alligator-filled swamplands of the Florida Everglades to deter escapees, has drawn scrutiny over its conditions, remote location and potential environmental impact. Critics have questioned whether the site is safe, humane or appropriate for long-term detention.
Homan, however, said the center still meets guidelines under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and maintains the “highest” standards in the industry.
“Detainees complain about the conditions of detention,” Homan said during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “You can simply go to ICE.gov and look at the detention standards ICE has. They have the highest detention standards in the industry, but these same congressmen are complaining about ‘Alligator Alcatraz.’”
DEM LAWMAKERS TO INSPECT ‘ALLIGATOR ALCATRAZ’ DETENTION CENTER, CITING SAFETY CONCERNS
White House ‘border czar’ Tom Homan speaks during a daily briefing in Washington, D.C., on April 28, 2025. (Jim WATSON / AFP via Getty Images)
Homan argued that the lawmakers condemning the facility were noticeably absent when migrant deaths surged under the Biden administration.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data obtained by Fox News, 856 migrants died attempting to cross the southern border in fiscal year 2022 — the highest number ever recorded at the time.
“You didn’t see them complaining about, under Biden administration, people being held in a border patrol parking lot surrounded by a fence and sweltering heat,” Homan said. “They ignored four years of open borders, historic migrant deaths, historic Americans dying from fentanyl, historic numbers of women and children being sex trafficked.”
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Beds are seen inside a migrant detention center, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” located at the site of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, on July 1, 2025. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
The border czar claimed that half a million children were trafficked into the country during Biden’s presidency — a crisis he said was not criticized heavily — and asserted that the administration under President Donald Trump has done more to locate those children.
“You didn’t hear a word about half a million children being trafficked in the country and them not being able to locate 300,000,” Homan said. “President Trump, this administration, is finding thousands of those children.”
SELF-DEPORT OR END UP IN ‘ALLIGATOR ALCATRAZ,’ NOEM WARNS MIGRANTS DURING TRUMP VISIT
Workers install a permanent Alligator Alcatraz sign. The facility is within the Florida Everglades, 36 miles west of the central business district of Miami, in Collier County, Florida, on Thursday, July 3, 2025. (Getty Images)
Homan said lawmakers who failed to push for stronger border security remained “silent because they’re complicit” in the crises that unfolded under the Biden administration.
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“You can’t have strong national security in this country if we don’t have border security,” Homan said. “We got to know who’s coming in, what’s coming, where it’s coming from. But, instead, they kept silent and they kept feeding the American people.”
Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report.