DHS Secretary Kristi Noem Asked Point Blank About 'Deteriorated Conditions' At Alligator Alcatraz

At a press briefing on Saturday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was asked about Alligator Alcatraz.

Transcript

00:00the Lord's work. With that, I'll take any questions that you may have for me.

00:03Secretary Noem, on the issue of Florida, there's reports of water intrusion, air conditioning issues at Alligator Alcatraz,

00:12and some issues that have deteriorated conditions there. Is that something your department is aware of?

00:17Do you have any thoughts on kind of how that's gone since it's initially been ruled out?

00:21Yeah, Alligator Alcatraz is held to the same standards that all federal facilities are,

00:26and in most states and in other jurisdictions, federal facilities are upheld to a higher quality

00:32of standards than what some states and local jurisdictions have. So any issues that were

00:37there have been addressed. It's a fantastic resource for us to be able to utilize in order for a detention

00:43facility to repatriate people back home to their home countries. And what I would say that this is a

00:49Alligator Alcatraz is a state-run facility run on our behalf, but we're incredibly grateful for the

00:54partnership that we have with Florida.

00:56There have been some questions about Florida applying for the grants or the reimbursements that

01:01will come back. Has that happened yet? Is DHS still...

01:05I haven't heard of any issues with any contracts. I've heard that it's been smooth.

01:08There are reports that Florida hadn't necessarily applied for the reimbursements yet.

01:12Oh, they will. They will. We've got a fantastic partnership here in Florida, and I've been so grateful for

01:17the governor and his leadership in this facility. Thousand-bed facility can continue to be expanded.

01:23We're looking at other locations as well. We've had several other states that are actually using

01:27Alligator Alcatraz as a model for how they can partner with us as well.

01:31What are some of those...are there other states...

01:33I'm having ongoing conversations with five other governors about facilities that they may have.

01:38You know, I haven't asked those governors if I can share their names, but announcements will be coming soon.

01:43As you all know, we need to double our capacity in detention beds because we need to facilitate

01:48getting people out of this country as fast as possible and to sustain our operations.

01:53But those governors have been fantastic. I will tell you, they are all Republicans.

01:58So I would challenge some Democrats to start taking care of your states.

02:02Partner with us in a way to make your communities safer.

02:05What shocks me every day is these sanctuary cities and sanctuary states where they don't mind letting

02:10rapers and murderers run their streets.

02:14I mean, every day when you look at who we're picking up off these streets,

02:17they're perpetuating violence on communities.

02:20And I don't understand local law enforcement officers or governors protecting their people

02:26or protecting criminals and victimizing their people.