A woke reporter got roasted after she paid a visit to Alligator Alcatraz, only to find that the detention facility really does live up to its name and is surrounded by gators, one of which greeted her and left her in shock when she started filming as she was approaching the facility.
For background, on June 30, 2025, Anna Giaritelli, a reporter for the Washington Examiner, visited the newest Immigration and Customrs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility, nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz,” and started filming the area around the entrance after she discovered that there were, as the name suggests, real gators patrolling the water around the facility.
Posting on X after she visited Alligator Alcatraz, Giaritelli seemed stunned, writing, “There really are alligators out here just feet from the road by ‘Alligator Alcatraz.'” In a subsequent post, she wrote, “On the ground at the Dade-Collier Airport in the Everglades ahead of Trump’s visit Tuesday to ICE’a (sic) newest immigrant detention facility @dcexaminer.”
Predictably, Giaritelli got roasted by commenters on X after she shared a video of her looking extremely nervous and pointing her camera at a gator lurking in the water near the facility. The X user DX made it clear that this is an everyday experience for Floridians, writing, “😂 Welcome to Florida….if it’s wet there is probably an alligator or shark in it.”
More commenters chimed in to roast Giaritelli as well, with one X user writing, “Better read the memo….there are alligators everywhere in Florida, not just the Everglades. If anyone runs into the Everglades….the LEAST of their worries will be alligators, trust me.” Another commenter chimed in, “What were you expecting? They were lying? Are people really this thick to not understand that if you have standing water in Florida you should assume something might be in it waiting lol…. That’s common sense.”
In addition, as Giaritelli mentioned on X, President Trump visited the facility a day after her on July 1, 2025, flanked by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. When the president was asked by reporters if he thought that Alligator Alcatraz was the future of ICE detention centers, he simply said, “It can be.”
Moreover, the president told reporters that he felt that Alligator Alcatraz might not be a blueprint for ICE detention centers across the country because of the rare geography of Florida, saying, “I mean, you don’t always have land so beautiful and so secure. They have a lot of bodyguards and a lot of cops that are in the form of alligators.” He added, “You don’t have to pay them so much, but I wouldn’t want to run through the Everglades for long.”
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In addition, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt provided reporters with more information about Alligator Alcatraz during a July 1 briefing, saying, “There’s only one road leading in, and the only way out is a one-way flight.” She continued, “It is isolated and surrounded by dangerous wildlife and unforgiving terrain. The facility will have up to 5,000 beds to house, process, and deport criminal illegal aliens.”
Watch Giarratelli’s clip:
Featured image credit: video screengrab