On Wednesday's Morning Joe, they fretted over President Trump's stop in Florida to see the new "Alligator Alcatraz" detention center for illegal aliens. NBC homeland security correspondent Julia Ainsley said this "was a joke" in Trump's first term, but now it could cause "injuries" to escapees.
"It's clearly intentionally being put there really as a symbolic form of deterrence," she said, "but possibly a real one too, if there were really injuries to people."
Pro Tip for detainees not wanting to become lunch for a hungry alligator or python: don't add to your crimes by attempting to escape.
Ainsley began by citing as her source for the "joke" comment a 2019 book by two New York Times reporters titled Border Wars: Inside Trump's Assault on Immigration. The publisher describes it this way [emphasis added]:
"This administration’s more brazen assaults on immigration. Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Michael D. Shear have covered the Trump administration from its earliest days. In Border Wars, they take us inside the White House to document how Stephen Miller and other anti-immigration officials blocked asylum-seekers and refugees, separated families, threatened deportation, and sought to erode the longstanding bipartisan consensus that immigration and immigrants make positive contributions to America."
Guess who isn't part of that "bipartisan consensus?" The tens of millions of Americans who voted for Trump in large part because of his pledge to curtail illegal immigration.
Ainsley also claimed that with Alligator Alcatraz, the Trump administration is "deviating" from the notion that ICE detention is not meant to be punitive.
Katty Kay lamented: "We're in a world where what's supposed to be was kind of jettisoned." Katty, take solace in Kamala's deep thought: "What Can Be, Unburdened By What Has Been."
Ainsley didn't indicate just how she would like illegal immigrants to be housed. Judging by her surroundings during her appearance, Julia has a lovely home. Perhaps she and other concerned citizens would accept a stipend to house and feed detainees.
Ainsley also dismissed Trump's visit to Alligator Alcatraz as "just a publicity moment." To his credit, Willie Geist corrected her, saying:
"Right now there are 500 beds at so-called Alligator Alcatraz. They plan to expand it to 3,000. So this wasn't just a photo op."
NBC News Senior White House Correspondent Gabe Gutierrez kicked off the coverage with reporting that considerably more balanced than Ainsley's. Notably, he said:
"President Trump was elected pledging to deport the record number of migrants who crossed into the U.S. under President Biden."
Gutierrez also reported that the facility was built in an [astounding] eight days. It's fair to assume that had she been elected, Kamala Harris wouldn't have attempted anything similar, but if she had, it would have been bogged down for years in environmental reviews and other delaying tactics.
On the other hand, Gutierrez claimed that "almost half of those currently in ICE custody have neither been convicted of nor charged with a crime."
Note that he might have framed it: "More than half" have been convicted or charged with a crime. And in any case, back in March, our Brad Wilmouth caught Ainsley admitting:
"The overwhelming majority of immigrants arrested by ICE since Trump took office have either been convicted of a crime or have pending charges, which contrasts with the liberal media narrative that half are not criminals."
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
7/2/25
6:35 am EDTWILLIE GEIST: President Trump toured Florida's new migrant detention center yesterday, calling it part of a blueprint to speed up the mass deportation efforts of his administration. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez has more.
GABE GUTIERREZ: Deep in the Florida Everglades, President Trump says this massive migrant detention camp, built in just eight days, has an unusual deterrent to prevent any escapes.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Don't run in a straight line. Run like this [waves hand back and forth.]
GUTIERREZ: He calls it Alligator Alcatraz.
TRUMP: It's meant more is a joke, but the more I thought of it, the more I liked it.
GUTIERREZ: With gators clearly visible outside, NBC News getting a first look inside.
TODD LYONS: The partnership with the state has been great.
GUTIERREZ: Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, telling us the goal is to keep detainees here no longer than two weeks, where they can appear before a judge and be deported from the camp's existing runway.
How would you respond to critics who think that this is not where immigrants should be housed?
LYONS: Well, what I would say is that, obviously, individuals that want to come here to enjoy the American dream should think about returning on their own so they're not in a detained setting, right?
GUTIERREZ: President Trump was elected pledging to deport the record number of migrants who crossed into the U.S. under President Biden.
TRUMP: I ran on the issue of illegals, and we have to get them out.
GUTIERREZ: According to data reviewed by NBC News, almost half of those currently in ICE custody have neither been convicted of nor charged with a crime.
[To Lyons] Is the administration still going after the worst of the worst?
LYONS: We are.
GUTIERREZ: The administration stresses the priority is violent criminals, but anyone who is here illegally is breaking the law.
. . .
JULIA AINSLEY: Well, in the first Trump administration, Willie, this was a joke. In fact, in the book Border Wars by Michael Shear, they write about how Trump wanted a moat around a detention center and he wanted to use the Rio Grande and he wanted alligators to be able to keep people from crossing into Texas.
In this case it's actually a reality. And so it's right, it almost started as a joke, but now it's this deterrent, and it's really a place where these people could be.
And when Gabe walked through there, that was soft-sided facilities. So not brick and mortar buildings. It's clearly intentionally being put there really as a symbolic form of deterrence, but possibly a real one too, if there were really injuries to people.
The other thing I would say about this, Willie, is that ICE is not supposed to be punitive. Immigration detention, is not supposed to be punitive. That is still on their website. That is mandated through court orders. ICE detention is for the purpose of detaining immigrants before they are deported or while their immigration proceedings are still going on. And that is up to the discretion of ICE whether they should detain everyone during that process.
But it is not supposed to be like you were sentenced to time in jail, like what you would have done if you had committed a crime and been sent to a Bureau of Prisons facility. And so they're now deviating from that.
KATTY KAY: Julia, I think we're in a world where what's supposed to be was kind of jettisoned, you know, quite a long time ago on various fronts.
We've seen Kristi Noem in situations like this before, of course, when she went down to El Salvador and had that photo opportunity and that video was made of her down there. What do you make of President Trump touring this facility? What's the message he's trying to get out by being there with her? It seems almost like, you know, she'd had that opportunity. Now he wanted to get in on that opportunity as well.
AINSLEY: That's true. I mean, when Kristi Noem went to El Salvador, it was seen as a way of her trying to show to Trump how tough she was on immigration. That would have been an opportunity that Tom Homan or many others would have liked to have in El Salvador.
And now not only does Kristi Noem not get the spotlight to herself at Alligator Alcatraz, she's sharing it with the president. This is something that I think it was just a publicity moment that would have been hard for the president to pass up. And he wants to go down there and show his willingness to go this far when it comes to this key platform issue for him.
GEIST: And the acting director of ICE, who we saw in Gabe's piece there, has said right now there are 500 beds at so-called Alligator Alcatraz. They plan to expand it to 3,000. So this wasn't just a photo op. This is going to become a place where they rely on to bring people who have come to the country illegally.
