By JACKIE TAYLOR | May 7, 2025

Alcatraz

Given activist judges are wanting trials for the 10-plus million undocumented illegal immigrants that are in our country – trials to send them back to their country of origin, President Trump is again thinking outside of the box and using assets our country already has. This time, the idea is to rejuvenate Alcatraz Island off of the coast of San Francisco to house some of the worst of the worst criminal immigrants.

Pretty Boy Floyd, Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly and other notorious criminals made Alcatraz home after being convicted of their various crimes.

I visited San Francisco in the later 80s, early 90s and never made it to the prison. Now, the prison reportedly makes $60 million per year for the National Park Service from the 1.6 million visitors that stroll through the historic site. We saw it after fog lifted from the bay in the far distance.

Wikipedia reports, “United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island, also known simply as Alcatraz or the Rock, was a maximum-security federal prison on Alcatraz Island, 1.25 miles (2.01 km) off the coast of San Francisco, California, United States. The site of a fort since the 1850s, the main prison building was built in 1910–12 as a U.S. Army military prison.

“The United States Department of Justice acquired the United States Disciplinary Barracks, Pacific Branch, on Alcatraz on October 12, 1933. The island became adapted and used as a prison of the Federal Bureau of Prisons in August 1934 after the buildings were modernized and security increased. Given this high security and the island’s location in the cold, great white shark-infested waters and strong currents of San Francisco Bay, prison operators believed Alcatraz to be escape-proof and America’s most secure prison.”

The prison was constructed for $250,000, or in those days an amount that equates to approximately $7.5 million to hold a maximum capacity of prisoners of 312. Compare that to the prison Linn County built a few years ago for $17 million to hold 96 prisoners; a wake-up call to how much retrofitting Alcatraz would cost to hold prisoners securely and safely.

Whatever that amount, the cost the Biden Administration put the American taxpayer under far exceeded retrofitting a prison. The Budget.house.gov reports, “The Federal Cost of Immigration:

“Total Federal Spending: $66,449,136,000

“Secretary Mayorkas has openly acknowledged to the American people that more than 85 percent of migrants illegally crossing our southern border are RELEASED into the country.  

“The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) has calculated that the total cost to the taxpayer per illegal immigrant is $8,776 per year.”

Interestingly, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is now front-and-center in commercials touting payments to illegals if they self-deport.

The website, Dhs.gov, reports, “Today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a historic opportunity for illegal aliens to receive both financial and travel assistance to facilitate travel back to their home country through the CBP Home App. Any illegal alien who uses the CBP Home App to self-deport will also receive a stipend of $1,000 dollars, paid after their return to their home country has been confirmed through the app.”

Fight fire with fire; people involved in the last few years migrant trains have an option to return back to their homeland and have further opportunity to return to the United States and gain legal citizenship. Many of the millions are living under daily threat of ICE raids and deportation; this new option gives them an opportunity to leave with dignity and potential for becoming an American.

Fox News reported that the cost to the country for Trump’s deportation plan is approximately $4,500 per person leaving; the cost to deport an illegal immigrant using law enforcement is $17,500 – a marked savings for the country.

Honestly, Joe and Obama need to foot the bill out of what they raked in as presidents; the assault on our country came during their watches.

It looks like anyone wishing to see Alcatraz before it becomes a prison again might want to book a flight to San Francisco and take the Park tour before it’s too late.