Big viewership for The Lincoln Project’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ ad shows American disgust, group says

The Lincoln Project launched a digital ad earlier this week mocking the so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” erected in South Florida’s alligator-infested swampland — hypothesizing that it will eventually be used to house the very people who erected it in the first place.

Since its launch, the ad has collectively received more than 6 million views, according to The Lincoln Project, a number the group claims proves “Americans are disgusted and ashamed by the Trump administration’s treatment of immigrants.”

Located within the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Big Cypress National Preserve in the Everglades, Gov. Ron DeSantis and his administration transformed the 38-square-mile site into a 1,000-bed detention facility to house migrants awaiting immigration cases or deportation.

Democrats and other critics have blasted the facility for housing migrants in inhumane conditions in an environment prone to flooding and severe weather, including hurricanes, as well as sweltering Florida Summer heat. Supporters, including President Donald Trump himself, have lauded it as a quick and cheap way to expedite the removal of undocumented immigrants.

Trump said the facility could be a model for the nation.

“They have a lot of bodyguards and a lot of cops that are the form of alligators,” Trump said upon visiting the facility this week. “You don’t have to pay them so much, but I wouldn’t want to run through the Everglades for long. It will keep people where they’re supposed to be.”

The Lincoln Project ad posits that someday, the people being kept “where they’re supposed to be” could be people like Trump.

The ad opens with a gruff-sounding narrator describing Alligator Alcatraz as “an impregnable prison camp surrounded by miles of the most deadly parts of Florida — poisonous snakes, fierce and hungry alligators, miles of unmapped swamps, storms, hurricanes, fierce heat.”

At first, it seems like an ad produced by a supporter, explaining that “no one’s getting out of Alligator Alcatraz.”

Mocking supporters of the facility, it describes those sent to Alligator Alcatraz as “subhumans, the worst of the worst,” adding that the detention facility “is going to teach these criminals a lesson.”

But then it pivots.

“If you’re upset by Alligator Alcatraz, just wait,” the narrator continues. “Because when the Trump era ends, we’re keeping it — keeping it open for the corrupt crypto-scammers like Don Jr. who cashed in on the presidency, keeping it open for folks like Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem and Tom Homan who ignore the law, ignore court orders and deploy masked cops in warrantless raids. We’re even keeping it open for the state and federal agents who abuse their power.”

And the ad ends with an ominous warning.

“You’ve built this, MAGA, and some of you will enjoy the view from inside the wire.”

Only open a week, detainees at the facility have already described inhumane conditions. Cuban artist Leamsy Izquierdo told Telemundo 51 earlier this week that he hadn’t been allowed to shower in days, and lamented that there was no way to brush his teeth and that there was no ability to go outside for fresh air.

Izquierdo said mosquitos “the size of elephants” were causing problems, and that lights were kept on in the facility constantly.

Worse, he said food had only been provided once a day, and that the food they did get had worms in it.

Adding to the criticism, reports show the facility flooded just before opening, though the flooding was minor.

Meanwhile, Democrats in the Legislature denied access to the facility to evaluate conditions are now suing for access, arguing to the Florida Supreme Court that their inability to tour the facility was unconstitutional, as the Legislature has independent oversight authority.