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The Young GOPer Behind “Alligator Alcatraz” Is the Dark Future of MAGA [1]

['Greg Sargent', 'Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling', 'Malcolm Ferguson', 'Melissa Gira Grant', 'Aaron Regunberg', 'Matt Ford', 'Norman J. Ornstein']

Date: 2025-07-14

The other day, Stephen Miller went on Fox News and offered a plea that got surprisingly little attention given its highly toxic and unnerving implications. Miller urged politicians in GOP-run states to build their own versions of “Alligator Alcatraz,” the state-run immigration detention facility that officials just opened in the Florida Everglades.

“We want every governor of a red state, and if you are watching tonight: pick up the phone, call DHS, work with us to build facilities in your state,” Miller said, in a reference to the Department of Homeland Security. Critically, Miller added, such states could then work with the federal government by supplying much-needed detention beds, helping President Trump “get the illegals out.”

Keep all that in mind as we introduce you to one James Uthmeier.

Uthmeier, the attorney general of Florida and a longtime ally of Governor Ron DeSantis, is widely described in the state as the brains behind “Alligator Alcatraz.” Peter Schorsch, the publisher of Florida Politics, sums him up this way: “In Uthmeier, DeSantis found his own Stephen Miller.”

Uthmeier is indeed a homegrown Florida version of Miller: Only 37 years old, he brings great precociousness to the jailing of migrants. Like Miller, he is obscure and little-known relative to the influence he’s amassing. Also like Miller, he is fluent in MAGA’s reliance on the spectacle of inhumanity and barbarism.

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[1] Url: https://newrepublic.com/article/197899/james-uthmeier-florida-alligator-alcatraz-maga-dark-future

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