by Temitope Oladeji
5/5/2025
U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that he has directed federal authorities to rebuild and reopen Alcatraz, the infamous prison located on an island off the coast of California, which has been closed for more than six decades.
In a statement posted on his Truth Social platform, President Trump said he was instructing the Bureau of Prisons, along with the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security, to oversee the reconstruction and expansion of Alcatraz.
The facility, he said, would be used to incarcerate the country’s “most ruthless and violent offenders.”
The proposal marks a dramatic escalation in Trump’s efforts to reshape the United States’ criminal justice and immigration detention systems as part of his broader law-and-order agenda.
It also comes amid mounting tensions between his administration and the federal judiciary over the treatment of immigrants and suspected criminals.
Recently, Trump’s administration has drawn controversy for invoking a rarely used 18th-century law historically applied only in wartime, as a legal basis to deport alleged criminals and gang members without offering them the usual due process protections. The move has sparked significant legal pushback.
In another contentious proposal, Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of transferring U.S. citizens convicted of violent crimes to CECOT, a high-security prison in El Salvador known for housing gang members under harsh conditions, which is considered an idea that legal experts have widely dismissed as unconstitutional.
Speaking to reporters upon his return to the White House from a weekend in Florida, Trump described the Alcatraz initiative as a response to what he called “radicalised judges” who, in his view, are obstructing efforts to deport dangerous individuals.
“It’s just an idea I’ve had,” he said, adding that the reopening of the prison would send a clear message of deterrence.
Alcatraz, once home to some of America’s most notorious criminals including Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly, was closed in 1963 due to high operating costs and structural decay. It is now a popular national park and tourist destination operated by the National Park Service.