President Donald Trump says he has ordered that Alcatraz, the notorious California island prison, be reopened.
The federal penitentiary closed in 1963. In a Truth Social post Sunday evening, the president called to “REBUILD, AND OPEN ALCATRAZ!”
“For too long, America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat Criminal Offenders, the dregs of society, who will never contribute anything other than Misery and Suffering,” Trump wrote. “When we were a more serious Nation, in times past, we did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals, and keep them far away from anyone they could harm. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.”
“No longer will we tolerate these Serial Offenders who spread filth, bloodshed, and mayhem on our streets,” he said, adding that he’s directing the Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Justice, FBI, and Homeland Security, “to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders.”
The president then made his latest attack on judges, some of whom had recently ruled against the Trump administration related to his massive deportation operation.
“We will no longer be held hostage to criminals, thugs, and Judges that are afraid to do their job and allow us to remove criminals, who came into our Country illegally,” the president said. “The reopening of ALCATRAZ will serve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE. We will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who represents San Francisco, quickly rejected Trump’s plan.
“Alcatraz closed as a federal penitentiary more than sixty years ago. It is now a very popular national park and major tourist attraction. The President’s proposal is not a serious one,” she wrote on X.
Alcatraz mapped:
The directive comes after a district judge in Texas ruled that the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 wartime law, to summarily deport Venezuelan immigrants accused of being gang members is “unlawful.”
The Trump administration has sent planes carrying immigrants to a notorious prison in El Salvador known as CECOT.
The country’s president, Nayib Bukele, told Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem last month that he plans to expand CECOT, which has been attacked by human rights groups as a “tropical gulag” rife with abuses. The prison already holds 40,000 prisoners.
Trump last month told Bukele that the “homegrowns” are next, referring to American citizens. “You gotta build about five more places … It’s not big enough.”
