Trump seeks $152M to reopen Alcatraz prison

The Trump administration has requested $152 million from Congress to restore Alcatraz prison, aiming to reopen it as a state-of-the-art secure facility. Democrats have slammed the plans as "lunacy" and vowed to block their implementation, calling it a waste of taxpayer dollars. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote on X that the proposal is "absurd on its face" and pledged to work with colleagues to block it.

Alcatraz, originally a fortress on the eponymous island in San Francisco Bay, operated as a maximum-security prison from 1934 until 1963, when it closed due to high operating costs. Among its notorious inmates were mobster Al Capone and George "Machine Gun" Kelly. The prison was considered one of the country's most secure facilities, with no successful escapes officially recorded. Currently, it is a major tourist attraction run by the National Park Service.

Trump first floated the idea in a Truth Social post last May, writing that when the U.S. was "a more serious Nation," it did not hesitate to lock up dangerous criminals away from society. In the request to Congress for the 2027 fiscal year, published on Friday, the administration seeks funds to "rebuild Alcatraz as a state-of-the-art secure prison facility." Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and former Attorney General Pam Bondi inspected the island months later, with Bondi suggesting the facility could "hold illegal aliens."

Democratic Senator Scott Wiener, who represents San Francisco, accused Trump of seeking to destroy a "top tourist attraction to turn it back into a failed exorbitantly expensive prison." The funding request has sparked intense political debate, with Democrats committing to use every parliamentary and budgetary tactic available to oppose the project.