In the fight to secure the US border, immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) has deployed an unexpected new line of defence.

Construction has begun on an 1,000-bed detention centre for undocumented migrants in the middle of the Florida everglades national park that state officials have nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz”.

The facility, built on the site of an abandoned runway, is designed to temporarily house migrants and has drawn comparisons to the infamous island prison because of the thousands of alligators and pythons living in the flooded grasslands that surround it.

The detention centre is the brainchild of James Uthmeier, the state attorney general and Trump ally who last week shared a video suggesting the area’s dangerous wildlife will function as natural security.

“Alligator Alcatraz: the one-stop shop to carry out president Trump’s mass deportation agenda,” Mr Uthmeier said.

“People get out, there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons. Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide.”