Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum toured Alcatraz Thursday to assess the possibility of converting the island back into a federal prison.
“A great morning at Alcatraz with @SecretaryBurgum. Under President Trump, we are Making America Safe Again,” Bondi posted to X at 11:04 a.m., along with photos of herself and Burgum touring the former prison.
The drama over plans to reopen Alcatraz as a federal prison was reignited Wednesday as Rep. Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats slammed the Trump administration.
President Donald Trump in May first floated the idea of reopening the prison, which ceased operations in 1963 and remains a popular tourist attraction. Pelosi on Wednesday said the plan is “the Trump administration’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,” Pelosi said. “Make no mistake: this stupidity is a diversionary tactic to draw attention away from this administration’s cruelest actions yet in their Big, Ugly Law, which takes away food from children and rips healthcare from millions to give tax breaks to billionaires.”
Critics have described the idea as impossible; rebuilding the crumbling prison would likely cost billions.
But Burgum defended the idea and said on X today that the project is underway “to renovate and reopen the site to house the most dangerous criminals and illegals.”
Alcatraz is run by the National Park Service, which is part of the Department of the Interior. To reopen it as a prison, Congress would have to pass legislation that transfers Alcatraz to the Bureau of Prisons, which is part of the Department of Justice, officials said.
Pelosi vowed that Congressional Democrats “will use every parliamentary and budgetary tactic available to stop the lunacy.”
After their visit to the island, Bondi and Burgum were possibly heading to the Presidio and Muir Woods, a Pelosi official told The Standard.
The Presidio is another federal property that has found itself in Trump’s crosshairs since he took office. In a February executive order, Trump attempted to make sweeping cuts to the Presidio Trust, the federal agency established by Congress in 1996 to oversee the 1,500-acre San Francisco park.
The timing of Bondi’s visit is raising eyebrows as the attorney general is under pressure from many in Trump’s base over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case. Trump voters want her to release the documents known as the Epstein files, but the administration said recently it did not plan to issue additional information on the convicted sex offender, who died in jail in 2019.
Maggie Coleman, a tourist visiting San Francisco with her children from Pittsburgh, said the idea of reopening Alcatraz as a prison was “stupid” as they waited for the first boat to the island Thursday morning.
“I think we have plenty of prisons, and there’s no reason to take an old one like this that’s now a national landmark and turn it into a prison again,” Coleman said.
Asked for comment about the plan, a spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom kept it brief.
“Pam Bondi will reopen Alcatraz the same day Trump lets her release the Epstein files,” the spokesperson said. “So … never.”
Mayor Daniel Lurie said there are better uses of federal funds to improve public safety.
“There is no realistic plan for Alcatraz to host anyone other than visitors,” Lurie posted on X. “If the federal government has billions of dollars to spend in San Francisco, we could use that funding to keep our streets safe and clean and help our economy recover. Alcatraz is a beloved destination.”
State Sen. Scott Wiener, who represents San Francisco, told The Standard that Trump’s idea should be taken seriously, given that Congressional Republicans have empowered the president “to dramatically expand the ICE secret police and to build more private prison gulags.”
“Some dismiss Trump’s talk about Alcatraz as a joke. While this idea is absurd on so many levels — and destructive in seeking to destroy one of the most popular tourist sites in the country — Trump has shown that he executes on many of the insane and destructive things that come out of his warped brain,” Wiener said in a statement. “I’m very concerned that Trump will actually try to turn Alcatraz into a gulag to hold the political prisoners ICE is sweeping off the streets. We need to do everything in our power to fight this dangerous idea.”
Trump’s push to convert Alcatraz comes after Florida this month rushed to open “Alligator Alcatraz” at an airfield in the Everglades. The Washington Post reported Thursday that the site has limited fresh water, and its portable toilets routinely clog — and mosquitos relentlessly attack detainees and staff.
Trump said this month he’d seen renderings of a new prison on Alcatraz Island.
“I saw a picture of ALCATRAZ looking so foreboding, and I said, ‘We’re going to look into renovating and rebuilding the famous ALCATRAZ Prison sitting high on the Bay, surrounded by sharks. What a symbol it is, and will be!’” Trump wrote on his social media site Truth Social.
Rodney Fong, CEO of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, said shuttering Alcatraz as a tourist destination could have a massive impact on the local economy, from restaurants and bike rentals at Fisherman’s Wharf to city hotel stays. The former island prison welcomes 1.6 million people annually, generating about $60 million in revenue for San Francisco, not including ancillary businesses that benefit like airlines and car rentals.
“It’s one of our postcards, and to lose that as one of our attractions to San Francisco would be an important loss,” Fong said.
A federal prison operated on Alcatraz Island from 1934 to 1963. It was shuttered due to high operating and maintenance costs.
“Alcatraz was nearly three times more expensive to operate than any other Federal prison,” a report from the Federal Bureau of Prisons states.
When Congress created the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in 1972, Alcatraz Island was included under National Park Service management. The island opened to the public the following year and remains a major tourist draw, attracting more than a million visitors annually.