Burgum, Bondi Tour Alcatraz to Launch Trump Plan to Reopen Site as Federal Prison

Updated 4:38 p.m. Thursday

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Attorney General Pam Bondi visited Alcatraz Island in San Francisco on Thursday morning to announce plans to reopen the former federal prison.

A Department of Justice spokesperson told KQED that Bondi and Burgum toured the prison — which once housed well-known criminals like Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly — and the surrounding island with park police and directed staff to collaborate on the planning needed to rehabilitate and reopen it.

“Spent the day on Alcatraz Island, a [National Park Service] site, to start the work to renovate and reopen the site to house the most dangerous criminals and illegals,” Burgum said on X Thursday, adding that he was following a directive from President Donald Trump. “This administration is restoring safety, justice, and order to our streets.”

The trip comes two months after Trump floated the idea of reopening Alcatraz on social media. House Republicans are expected to introduce legislation that would make the feat possible, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi’s office confirmed.

“The planned announcement to reopen Alcatraz as a federal penitentiary is the Trump Administration’s stupidest initiative yet,” Pelosi said in a statement. “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.”

In May, Trump announced his desire to re-open the federal prison in a post on Truth Social, saying he would direct the Bureau of Prisons and federal safety agencies to reopen “a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders.

“The reopening of ALCATRAZ will serve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE. We will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,” the post reads.

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie told reporters Thursday morning that the Trump administration had no “feasible plan” to reopen the prison.

“If they want to spend billions and billions and billions of dollars, we have many opportunities,” he said. “Tourists come from all over the world to visit Alcatraz. Over 1.5 million visitors, tens of millions of dollars of economic activity to our city and to our region.”

State Sen. Scott Wiener expressed concern on social media that Trump might aim to use the island to hold people detained by ICE on social media.

“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,” he wrote on X.

In his post on X, Burgum suggested the facility could “house the most dangerous criminals and illegals.”

Reopening the prison would be difficult under current legislation that places the island under the Department of the Interior’s control and designates it as part of a national park.

Nearly a decade after Alcatraz shuttered in 1963, Congress created the Golden Gate Recreation Area, which includes Alcatraz, Muir Woods in Marin County and the Presidio in San Francisco. All three became part of the newly formed national park, which was transferred to National Park Service control.

As a part of the Golden Gate Recreation Area, Alcatraz is subject to the Historic Preservation Act and the National Environmental Protection Act — federal protections that would make operating a prison on the site virtually impossible.

The 1972 act creating the park requires that the National Park Service and Department of the Interior “shall preserve the recreation area, as far as possible, in its natural setting, and protect it from development and uses which would destroy the scenic beauty and natural character of the area.”

As part of the national park system, the land also has to adhere to the Park Service Organic Act, which says it must “conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”

But forthcoming legislation would aim to repeal those requirements. Pelosi’s office confirmed that a House representative is expected to propose a bill that would remove key environmental protections governing the island, allowing it to be transferred out of the National Park Service’s control.

“Should reason not prevail and Republicans bring this absurdity before the Congress, Democrats will use every parliamentary and budgetary tactic available to stop the lunacy,” Pelosi said.

A Department of Justice spokesperson told KQED the Bureau of Prisons would operate the facility if it reopens.

The move builds on an earlier attack on the park, when, in February, Trump signed a DOGE-inspired executive order requiring the federal agency that runs the Presidio to submit a review of its operations and shut down any non-required functions, aiming to all but eliminate it.

On a tour of the Presidio after the Alcatraz trip, Burgum praised the agency that manages the park, calling its revenue-generating operation a “model” for national parks. The Presidio Trust is financially self-sufficient, relying on money from leasing its historic buildings.

Reviving a prison on Alcatraz, on the other hand, would be costly — and inefficient, according to critics.

Alcatraz was shut down due to high operating costs, which the BOP estimated in 1959 were about three times as high as any other federal facility. At the time, the site also required an estimated $3 million to $5 million in restoration and maintenance work.

At its highest occupancy, the site that now serves as a tourist destination housed less than 1% of federal prisoners in the country, with a usual occupancy between 260 and 275, according to the BOP.