STORY: U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi toured the former Alcatraz prison on Thursday (July 17), weeks after President Donald Trump said the infamous island facility could be reopened to house violent offenders and undocumented immigrants.

Joined by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and a Fox News crew, Bondi walked through the long-shuttered San Francisco Bay penitentiary, calling it “a terrific facility” that “needs a lot of work” but praised its security, saying “no one has been known to escape and survive.”

Burgum noted that returning Alcatraz to its original purpose would be "relatively straightforward," given its federal history.

Trump in May said he was directing the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which Bondi oversees, to rebuild and reopen the facility as a prison.

It is unclear if there are concrete plans to do so. The Trump administration did not request funds to reopen it from Congress in its latest budget proposal.

Alcatraz was closed as a maximum-security prison in 1963 after 29 years of operation, because it was too expensive to continue operating, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website.

The federal prison at Alcatraz had housed notorious U.S. criminals such as Al Capone before it closed. Now managed by the National Park Service, it is one of San Francisco's most popular tourist destinations.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

VIDEO SHOWS: U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL PAM BONDI AND INTERIOR SECRETARY DOUG BURGUM TOURING ALCATRAZ PRISON / SOUNDBITES BY BONDI AND BURGUM

SHOWS: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (JULY 17, 2025) (FOX NEWS - Mandatory on-air and on-screen credit to “Fox News”. No obstruction of Fox bug. No more than two minutes use allowed. No archive. No reuse. No resale)

1. U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL PAM BONDI, INTERIOR SECRETARY DOUG BURGUM AND FOX NEWS’ JOURNALIST WALKING INSIDE ALCATRAZ PRISON (NOT A SOUNDBITE)

2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, PAM BONDI, SAYING:

“It can hold middle class violent prisoners. It could hold illegal aliens. It could hold anything. This is a terrific facility. Needs a lot of work. But no one has been known to escape from Alcatraz and survive.”

3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) INTERIOR SECRETARY, DOUG BURGUM, SAYING:

“This was part of the Bureau of Federal Prisons. And returning it to that purpose is relatively straightforward compared to a lot of other transactions with federal land. But this is one of the reasons why it's ideal is because this was its original purpose.”

4. BONDI AND BURGUM DURING INTERVIEW (NOT A SOUNDBITE)