Alcatraz housed prisoners from 1934 to 1963.
This week’s stunt of the week from the Trump Administration’s regular array was his vow to reopen Alcatraz, the 19th century military fortress on a 22-acre island San Francisco Bay which was repurposed, shall we say, into a notorious federal penitentiary.
Alcatraz housed prisoners from 1934 to 1963, among them Al Capone, “Machine Gun” Kelly and convicted murderer Robert Stroud, the “Birdman of Alcatraz.” The prison was cramped and dank and food was scare.
Its sinister reputation as maximum security, minimum mercy prison evidently captured Trump’s imagination this week shortly after the 1979 Clint Eastwood film “Escape from Alcatraz” aired this week on a South Florida public TV station, the Los Angeles Times reported.
If it’s that easy for him to concoct the Alcatraz re-vamp scheme after watching a movie, we must definitely keep him away from Wiley Coyote and Roadrunner cartoons or there might be anvils dropping all over the place.
After the prison was closed down in 1963, Alcatraz Island was added to Golden Gate National Recreation Area in 1972 and the structure became a flourishing tourist attraction.
The President has proposed shutting the whole thing down and replacing the landmark with an expanded prison. He declared on Truth Social that “we will no longer be held hostage to criminals, thugs, and judges that are afraid to do their job and allow us to remove criminals, who came into our country illegally.”
The transition back to the decrepit prison would be impractical and expensive.
The US Bureau of Prisons Director said he would “pursue all avenues “to implement the President’s Alcatraz plan. The transition back to a prison would be impractical and expensive to say the least—re-construction costs, bureaucratic hurdles and not to mention the potential to affect San Francisco Bay topography and the city’s tourist industry
But never mind that. Cruelty is the point of this stunt—he told reporters why reopening Alcatraz captured his imagination: “It sort of represents something that’s both horrible and beautiful and strong and miserable, weak.”
Which brings us to this week’s theme of finding a fightback trench to fire back at the president’s overwhelming gush of cruel policies. Anti-immigrant action is front and center on his agenda—it sells so well with the base–and among the miscreants that Trump lumps into his mix of those hold us hostage are “judges that are afraid to do their job” to deport “criminals” who entered the U.S without documents.
Let’s take a look at who’s firing back from that legal trench:
The American Civil Liberties Union has been in Boasberg’s courtroom on behalf of 137 Venezuelan migrants deported to El Salvador under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg continues—he’s the Washington DC judge that ordered the deportation flight carrying Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father of three married to a U.S. citizen, to El Salvador to turn around. Abrego Garcia was deported by “administrative error”, in other words, a wrongful deportation. The flight did not turn around despite the judge’s intervention and Abrego Garcia was sent to the notoriously cruel CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador. After high profile intervention from Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen, he has been moved to another facility with a less brutal reputation, but remains there without access to outside communication.
This week Trump invoked state secret privilege when pressed by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis pressed the Administration for details about the extradition.
Deportation being the Trump Administration’s favorite sport, even more than golf at Mar A Lago, the American Civil Liberties Union has been in Boasberg’s courtroom on behalf of 137 Venezuelan migrants deported to El Salvador in March under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.
During a hearing on that case, Boasberg put a government lawyer on the griddle this past week, pressing counsel on a statement that the president has said he could effect Garcia Abrego’s return to the U.S. with a phone call to El Salvador’s President.
The government lawyer said that the U.S. influence doesn’t mean the prisoners are in U.S. custody.
Got it.
“First, we kill all the lawyers” is another Trump Administration approach to legal matters.
Earlier this year the daggers came out in the hunt for vengeance against law firms whose clients are Donald Trump’s political enemies. An executive order in March had revoked federal clearance for employees for employees of the law firm Perkins Coie, a plummy, Seattle-headquartered firm that has worked with the likes of Hillary Clinton and George Soros.
The order instructed federal agencies to cancel contracts with the company and also attacked the law firm’s diversity hiring practices.
On May 9th U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled that Trump’s executive order targeting the law firm of Perkins Coie was unlawful—violating free speech and due process.
On May 9th U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled that Trump’s executive order targeting Perkins Coie was unlawful—violating constitutionally enshrined protections for free speech and due process.
There have been plenty more attacks in the legal world—six law firms in six weeks this year, all pretty overtly aimed at political enemies.
Meanwhile, not all firms are jumping into the trench to fire back—actually, many have raced to the Trump ATM, Zelle and PayPal. Five of the world’s largest firms have cut deals to duck the Administration’s executive orders and the commander in chief got comped $940 million in free legal services and four major corporate firms kicked in $600 million.
The lawyers fighting back against unjust policy by actually following the law continue to persist. Lately Trump remains frustrated at his lagging deportation numbers—on ABC news he lamented due process for deporting fewer than 180,000 persons in 5 months, way below his goals. Due process–so annoying.
Buck up, Mr. President—the Bureau of Prisons is on the case to see if you can get your big, shiny new Alcatraz prison.
But let’s see if you can get that one by the Bay Area environmental and social justice communities—those folks can litigate like nobody’s business.
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Copyright 2025 by Bobbi Murray. This article is part of an on-going series of reports on the excesses of the Trump administration and efforts by the American public to fight back. All images used in this blog are in the public domain.