Trump warm to DeSantis’ idea for using National Guardsmen as immigration judges at Alligator Alcatraz

President Donald Trump appeared to support Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s plan on Tuesday to appoint Florida National Guardsmen as immigration judges in order to speed up the court process at the newly established “Alligator Alcatraz.”

DeSantis told reporters that Florida is working with Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) to receive approval on making National Guardsmen immigration judges so that detainees will go through the immigration court process within “a day or two.” Trump appeared familiar with the plan and nodded at the idea.

“We’re offering up our National Guard and other folks in Florida to be deputized to be immigration judges. We’re working with the Department of Justice for the approvals, I’m sure [Attorney General] Pam [Bondi] will approve,” DeSantis said, receiving a nod from Trump. “But then I’ll have a National Guard judge advocate here, someone has a notice to appear. [Former President Joe] Biden would tell them to come back in three years and appear. Now you’ll be able to appear in like a day or two. So they’re not gonna be detained, hopefully, for all that long. We’ll have people here in this facility.”

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The Florida governor said the state wants to “cut through” the bureaucracy to efficiently remove the illegal immigrants.

“We want to cut through [the bureaucracy] so that we have an efficient operation between Florida and DHS to get the removal of these illegals done,” DeSantis continued.

Under former President Joe Biden’s administration, several states passed laws that prohibited Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from detaining illegal immigrant criminals while they waited for their immigration hearings, border czar Tom Homan wrote in a Heritage Foundation piece. Former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas oversaw the lowest numbers in arrests by ICE agents in the history of the agency while illegal immigrants flooded the border in record-high numbers.

Due to significant backlogs, illegal immigrants could wait months and up to several years to appear on their court dates.

Trump traveled to the Florida Everglades on Tuesday to visit the new detention center, where he will participate in a walking tour and a roundtable discussion. DHS said the “worst of the worst” criminals will be detained at the facility, including those who have been convicted of committing homicide, traveling to meet a minor for sex, distributing child porn and forcibly raping a child.

The facility will house up to 5,000 illegal immigrant criminals as they await deportation.

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