Former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) said Monday that the new migrant detention facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz” is just a “very small piece” of the Trump administration’s immigration agenda.
In an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, the moderate Republican noted that President Trump’s massive tax and spending bill, which is making its way through Congress, is slated to add more than a couple hundred billion dollars in defense and border funding.
The new detention facility, opening at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in the swampy Everglades on Tuesday, is more “symbolic.”
“This Alcatraz alligator thing — 5,000 beds — that’s like two days’ worth of deportations, in terms of their goal, so it’s actually a very small piece of the puzzle,” Sununu said. “It’s very symbolic, I think, and really defines, I think, where the administration is trying to take border control and border security.”
Trump on Tuesday is slated to attend the opening of the detention center, which is located at an airport to allow for swift removals and deportations of undocumented migrants.
The site is expected to hold up to 5,000 beds, according to the Trump administration, and includes soft-sided holding units for hundreds of detainees. The center, which has faced its share of criticism and legal challenges, was built through a partnership between Florida leaders and the federal government.
The Florida Division of Emergency Management has overseen the build-out and management of the facility, which is expected to cost about $450 million per year. Those funds will come from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Shelter and Services Program, which was used to house asylum-seekers during the Biden administration.
Sununu said he would prefer to see a comprehensive immigration reform bill while the Republicans still hold majorities in both chambers of Congress.
“I don’t mind it,” the former New Hampshire governor said of the detention center. “I want to see — I think a lot of people would agree — an immigration reform bill. I think the Republicans have an awesome opportunity to do a good, smart, conservative immigration reform bill. I tell them all the time: ‘If you don’t do it, eventually the Democrats will be in charge, and they’ll do it, and they won’t do it the way you want it.’”
“So if you wrap this up in a better package, with better messaging, the American people, the American public will really understand it,” he added.
Sununu said he thinks Republicans have the support of the American public on issues related to border security and defense but that the current package of Trump’s legislative priorities — which is not yet final — loses support due to sweeping cuts to Medicaid.
“On those issues of supporting defense, closing the border and all that sort of thing, Americans want that. That’s essentially why they voted Trump in,” the Granite State Republican told Collins. “It’s this Medicaid stuff that they were told they weren’t going to be bargained for.”
He added, “And the Republicans just haven’t planned in terms of how to sell that, that piece of it.”