The Mystery of Missing Immigrants at “Alligator Alcatraz”

Is there anything the Trump administration can do right? At this point, watching them try to run immigration policy is like watching someone juggle chainsaws blindfolded, messy, dangerous, and guaranteed to end badly. Enter “Alligator Alcatraz,” the Everglades detention center that has somehow managed to lose track of hundreds of people. Yes, you read that correctly. The U.S. government lost people.

According to reports, nearly two-thirds of the 1,800 detainees held there in July 2025 have vanished from ICE’s online database. Families and lawyers who rely on that system to track their loved ones are hitting refresh like it’s Ticketmaster on Beyoncé day, only to find nothing. Not a name, not a number, nada. These are human beings, not socks in a dryer. But leave it to Trump’s team to treat lives like loose change that just rolled under the couch.

And how does DHS explain this circus? With the usual routine: deny, deflect, dismiss. They claim the detainees weren’t “missing,” they were just transferred or deported, as if playing hide-and-seek with families and attorneys is somehow acceptable. To add insult to injury, they even call the outrage a “hoax.” Right, because when hundreds of people disappear from your records, the real problem is that people are talking about it.

This is classic Trump-world logic: chaos is fine as long as you pretend it’s intentional. Cruelty is fine as long as you rename it “policy.” And incompetence? That’s just the brand.

Meanwhile, immigration lawyers are out here doing the government’s job, desperately trying to figure out where clients went. One attorney summed it up: “Families should not have to guess whether their loved ones are still alive, still in the country, or where they are being held.” But under Trump, guessing has become the immigration system’s official operating procedure.

“Alligator Alcatraz” is less a detention center and more a political Bermuda Triangle, a place where people enter, but records vanish. Protesters are demanding congressional investigations, but don’t hold your breath. Accountability and Trump go together like alligators and yoga, impossible to imagine.

So let’s circle back: is there anything this administration can do right? Judging by Alligator Alcatraz, the answer is a swampy, resounding no. They can’t even manage a database without turning it into a scandal. And while Trump keeps ranting about “law and order,” the truth is simple: his administration couldn’t organize a lemonade stand, let alone a detention facility.

Until real answers surface, the only thing Alligator Alcatraz proves is that under Trump’s leadership, the swamp isn’t being drained, it’s being expanded, stocked with alligators, and run by people who couldn’t find their way out if you gave them a map and a flashlight.