Noem says 'Alligator Alcatraz' will be model for state-run ICE detention centers

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that "Alligator Alcatraz" in Florida will be a model for state-run Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers.

Noem told CBS News that she is looking to launch a few similar detention centers in multiple airports and jails across the country in the coming months, the news outlet reported Monday. She said that potential sites already being considered are in Arizona, Nebraska and Louisiana. 

"The locations we're looking at are right by airport runways that will help give us an efficiency that we've never had before," Noem said, adding that she has reached out to governors and state leaders nationwide to see if they are interested in assisting with detaining and deporting illegal immigrants.

"Most of them are interested," Noem said, noting that in states that support President Trump's mission of securing the southern border, "many of them have facilities that may be empty or underutilized."

Last month, the Department of Homeland Security opened a 3,000-bed immigration detention center at Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in South Florida dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" by state and federal officials. The tents and trailers were up and running in just 8 days and will cost an estimated $450 million to operate in its first year.

The office of Arizona Democrat Gov. Katie Hobb told CBS News that it has not been approached about a state-run immigration detention facility.

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen's office said in a statement that he "continues to be in communication with federal partners on how Nebraska can best assist in these efforts," noting that for now, "it is premature to comment" and the governor would "make details public at the appropriate time."

Noem said that the Alligator Alcatraz model is "much better" than the current detention prototype, which largely contracts out its ICE detention capacity to for-profit prison companies and county jails. The new model relies on intergovernmental service agreements between ICE and individual localities.

The Florida facility has an eventual price tag of $245 per inmate bed, per night, according to DHS officials.

"Obviously it was much less per-bed cost than what some of the previous contracts under the Department of Homeland Security were," Noem said.

She argued that the new venues, which are close to airports or runways, will help ICE cut costs by "facilitating quick turnarounds." 

"They're all strategically designed to make sure that people are in beds for less days," Noem said. "It can be much more efficient once they get their hearings, due process, paperwork."

Alligator Alcatraz is using funds from a food, shelter, and transportation program run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. However, the future state-run facilities will use a new $45 billion funding pool for ICE from the "One Big, Beautiful Bill" that was enacted last month.

The funding is for the expansion of ICE's detention network and will nearly double the agency's capacity of 61,000 beds. ICE is currently holding just over 57,000 individuals in its detention network in more than 150 facilities nationwide.