White House: Immigrants could await deportation at Alcatraz prison

If the Alcatraz prison were to reopen, it could house the most dangerous criminals: both Americans and immigrants awaiting deportation from the US, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday.

In early May, US President Donald Trump announced that he had instructed his administration to rebuild and reopen the prison on Alcatraz Island near San Francisco.

"The president wants the worst of the worst criminals sent there," a White House spokeswoman said. She added that the prison would house both "American criminals who have committed terrible crimes and illegal immigrants who are criminals awaiting deportation."

Attorney General Pam Bondi visited Alcatraz on Thursday to tour the facility. "(Alcatraz prison) could house violent prisoners. It could house illegal immigrants. It could house anything," Bondi said after the visit. "It's an incredible facility, it needs a lot of work, but there's no known case of anyone who managed to escape from Alcatraz and survive," she emphasized.

Democrat Nancy Pelosi, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, called the idea of reopening Alcatraz as a prison the Trump administration's "stupidest initiative yet." "It's brutal, cruel, and stupid," Pelosi told CNN. She noted that converting the facility back into a prison would cost billions of dollars.

The famous prison, built on a small island in San Francisco Bay, closed in 1963 due to high maintenance costs, among other reasons. Today, it is a tourist attraction and museum managed by the National Park Service. The prison, featured in numerous films and books, was home to dangerous criminals, including mob boss Al Capone.

As the AP agency emphasized, during the 29 years of the prison's operation, 14 escape attempts were made and almost all the escapees were caught or died.

From Washington, Natalia Dziurdzińska (PAP)

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Converting Alcatraz Island back into a maximum-security prison could cost around $2 billion, Axios reported on Friday, citing sources within the U.S. administration. President Donald Trump announced the prison's reopening.

Despite Democratic opposition, the president is so determined to reopen the prison on Alcatraz Island near San Francisco that members of his administration have visited the island multiple times and prepared cost estimates, according to sources.

The interlocutors emphasized that Trump has not yet made a final decision on the project. They said three options are being considered. One is building a new "supermax" prison from scratch, which would require demolishing all existing buildings on the island and cost over $2 billion.

Another option involves building a smaller prison that wouldn't occupy the entire island, costing around $1 billion. The final option involves issuing a tender and outsourcing the prison's construction and management to a private company, but this option is the least likely, according to sources, Axios reported.

According to the website, Trump's interest in Alcatraz is more symbolic than substantive. In May, he wrote on the social media platform Truth Social that when the US "was a more serious country," it didn't hesitate to "lock up the most dangerous criminals and keep them away from anyone they could hurt."

One Trump adviser claims the president likes Alcatraz "because it's tough," Axios reported.

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday that if the Alcatraz prison were to reopen, it could house the most dangerous criminals: both Americans and immigrants awaiting deportation from the US.

The famous prison, built on a small island in San Francisco Bay, was closed in 1963 due to, among other reasons, high maintenance costs and is now a tourist attraction and museum operated by the National Park Service.

The prison, known from numerous films and books, was home to dangerous criminals. One of them was the infamous Chicago gangster Al Capone. According to media reports, during the 29 years of Alcatraz's operation, there were 14 escape attempts, and almost all of the escapees were either caught or killed. (PAP)

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