Trump Tours ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Migrant Facility Amid Fact-Checks on Immigration, Budget Claims

Former President Donald Trump recently toured Florida’s newly established ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ migrant detention facility in the Everglades on July 1st, an event livestreamed where he addressed immigration and other policy matters. The facility, designed to house 5,000 detainees, is expected to begin receiving migrants shortly, funded by $450 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Shelter and Services program.

During his visit, Trump was joined by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The tour coincided with the Senate’s passage of ‘The One Big Beautiful Bill,’ Trump’s tax and spending plan, which allocates $150 billion for his deportation agenda over four years.

Trump’s remarks during the event have since been subject to fact-checking. He claimed the average undocumented immigrant costs taxpayers $70,000, an estimate from a low-immigration advocacy group that has been disputed by other analyses, including the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which found a net positive economic impact from recent immigration surges. The CBO estimated an $8.9 trillion boost to GDP and a nearly $1 trillion reduction in federal deficits over 10 years due to increased tax revenues from migrants.

Additionally, Trump falsely asserted that the new budget bill’s Medicaid changes would only target ‘waste, fraud and abuse,’ despite CBO analyses indicating that up to 11.8 million people could lose coverage. The bill includes provisions that incentivize states to stop covering undocumented individuals, require work for benefits, and ban payments for gender-affirming care and to organizations like Planned Parenthood, changes that go beyond solely addressing fraud.

He also repeated the unfounded ‘autopen’ conspiracy theory regarding President Biden’s signatures and vastly inflated the number of migrant arrivals under the Biden administration, claiming 21 million ‘illegal aliens’ invaded the country, when official data indicates about 10 million border encounters, with approximately 3.8 million individuals released into the U.S. to await hearings.

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