Attorney General Pam Bondi and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum are in San Francisco to announce the reopening of the infamous prison of Alcatraz.
President Donald Trump said in May that he wanted to make the federal penitentiary operational once more.
His Justice and Interior Department secretaries were spotted together on Thursday afternoon on a U.S. Coast Guard boat en route to the notorious island.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt signaled that the decision to reopen the prison isn’t set in stone and said that Bondi and Burgum are touring the site to evaluate the viability of the proposal.
Asked who would be housed in the prison, Leavitt said on Thursday: ‘The worst of the worst criminals in this country – both American criminals who conduct heinous crimes but also illegal alien criminals before deportation.’
Currently, the National Park Service (NPS) controls the site, which is environmentally protected and serves as a popular California tourist destination.
Bondi and Burgum’s surprise visit to the island on Thursday is already drawing ire from Democrats – including top voices in the Golden State.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement that the idea to reopen Alcatraz is Trump’s ‘stupidest initiative yet.’
‘It should concern us all that clearly the only intellectual resources the Administration has drawn upon for this foolish notion are decades-old fictional Hollywood movies,’ the former speaker added.
Bondi’s trip out west comes as she is embroiled in controversy of the Justice Department’s memo on the Jeffrey Epstein files.
‘Pam Bondi will reopen Alcatraz the same day Trump lets her release the Epstein files. So… never,’ California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement.
Reopening Alcatraz is in line with Trump’s hard-on-crime policies.
In a post shared to Truth Social announcing the plan, Trump said ‘the reopening of ALCATRAZ will serve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE.’
Trump has directed the Bureau of Prisons to work alongside the Department of Justice, FBI and Homeland Security to ‘reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt’ Alcatraz.
He said the notorious facility, which once held famed gangster Al Capone, will ‘house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders.’
The order comes as Trump has repeatedly clashed with the courts as he tries to send accused gang members and illegal migrants to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
The maximum security prison, which was shut down in 1963, will provide Trump a workaround to those court orders barring him from carrying out the mass deportation scheme.
‘We will no longer be held hostage to criminals, thugs, and Judges that are afraid to do their job and allow us to remove criminals, who came into our Country illegally,’ he wrote, appearing to suggest illegal migrants will be the first sent to the prison.
Trump has also directed the opening of a detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to hold up to 30,000 of what he has labeled the ‘worst criminal aliens.’
The trip by his top deputies comes after the president visited the new so-called ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ in Florida meant to house illegal immigrants as they are prepared for deportation.
Congress is expected to introduce a bill that will end the environmental protections for Alcatraz and strip control of the site from the National Park Service.
Alcatraz generates approximately $60 million in annual revenue, according to NPS.
The prison operated from 1934 to 1963 – closing after just 29 years due to high operational costs. It was initially a military fort that was repurposed as a maximum-security prison dedicated for the most dangerous federal inmates.
According to estimates, refurbishing the island and building a new prison would cost upwards of $250 million.
The prison currently serves as a museum and historical site that tourists can visit and tour.