Homeland Security’s Noem says in talks with five Republican-led states to build detention site

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a press conference to discuss the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “National Farm Security Action Plan,” in Washington

(Reuters) -U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on Saturday that she was in talks with five Republican-led states to build another detention site inspired by the “Alligator Alcatraz” facility in Florida.

“We’ve had several other states that are actually using Alligator Alcatraz as a model for how they can partner with us,” Noem told a press conference in Florida.

She declined to name the states.

“Alligator Alcatraz” is a remote migrant detention center, which sits some 37 miles (60 km) from Miami in a vast subtropical wetland teeming with alligators, crocodiles and pythons.

(Reporting by Joey Roulette and Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Don Durfee)