‘Alligator Alcatraz’ merch appears on Amazon and Florida GOP website, making light of controversial facility

In a move clearly meant to celebrate a facility that has raised serious human rights and environmental concerns, online merchants are now selling merchandise that promotes the Everglades-based migrant detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”

The website for the Florida GOP is promoting a shirt, hat, and beverage cooler in support of the quickly constructed, controversial building. The shirt and cooler feature an image of a nondescript building in a swamp with an alligator and snake in front of it. 

Alligator Alcatraz shirts and hats are also being sold by merchants on Amazon, featuring everything from a buff alligator with a gun to one behind bars for some reason. There’s even one dubbed “retro vintage,” which features a sunbathing alligator. 

Fast Company has reached out to the Florida GOP and Amazon for comment. 

The detention center, meant to hold up to 3,000 beds, has faced backlash from immigrant rights activists, Florida’s indigenous community, and countless others, CNN reports. 

Trump visited the controversial migrant detention center on Tuesday, July 1, alongside Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. A pro-Trump influencer joined the visit and posted on social media that he had received “official Alligator Alcatraz merch.”

Treating the entire experience as amusing rather than evil, Trump emphasized the alligators and snakes surrounding the center. At one point, he stated, “We’re going to teach them how to run away from an alligator if they escape prison. Don’t run in a straight line,” according to the New York Times. 

Yes, that’s the American president joking about alligators eating migrants.