The Florida Everglades immigration detention middle generally known as “Alligator Alcatraz” has served its function, Gov. Ron DeSantis stated Thursday, closing the makeshift facility heralded by the Trump administration and denounced as inhumane by civil rights teams.
DeSantis stated the middle, which opened in July 2025, was all the time meant to be solely momentary till extra everlasting detention facilities could possibly be secured and federal officers now have that capability.
“We stepped up as a result of there was a niche, however my hope is that they’ll have the ability to deal with that,” the Republican governor stated at a information convention on the facility.
Officers introduced a short lived closure of the power earlier in June and despatched the entire detainees to different amenities, saying hurricane season made it unsafe to maintain them within the Everglades.
Immigration advocates stated the middle’s tents had been by no means secure or humane for holding folks. Detainees on the facility have talked about their problem accessing legal professionals and described poor bodily situations, together with worms within the meals, bogs that didn’t flush, flooring flooded with fecal waste, and mosquitoes and different bugs in all places.
They described giant white tents with rows of bunk beds surrounded by chain-link cages. The air-con might shut off abruptly within the sweltering Florida warmth. Detainees might go days with out showering or getting prescription medication.
Advocates for immigrants stated the closure of “Alligator Alcatraz” does nothing to cease the hurt to individuals who spend months in custody as their households undergo.
The Florida Immigrant Coalition stated the one winners had been companies and contractors who profited thousands and thousands of {dollars} as Republicans pushed an immigration emergency that doesn’t exist.
The detention middle of tents and trailers was constructed by DeSantis’ administration in a matter of days. The governor and President Donald Trump stated the middle was vital to Republican efforts to return folks within the nation illegally again to their residence international locations.
“There is no such thing as a query this mission has made the state of Florida safer,” stated DeSantis, noting that 21,000 folks had been deported by the power.
Even with the closure of the power, Florida continues to play a key position with different detention facilities and an elevated position in serving to with immigration enforcement, White Home border czar Tom Homan stated at Thursday’s information convention.
“Gov. DeSantis did job, and he’s going to proceed doing what he’s doing to assist us make this nation secure once more,” Homan stated. “This isn’t the top of the connection. It is a continuation.”
Legal professionals for the immigrants on the facility stated their shoppers abruptly began leaving for different amenities in South Florida, California, Arizona, Louisiana and Texas earlier this month, disappearing for a few week earlier than their attorneys and households had been instructed the place they had been despatched.
DeSantis stated the Everglades airstrip the power was constructed round will proceed for use.
Environmental teams sued over the detention middle, saying Florida officers by no means obtained the correct permits or did required opinions on its affect.
The state and federal governments constructed the positioning with no oversight and closed it with no enter, however they may nonetheless be held accountable even with the positioning is closed, stated Paul J. Schwiep, an legal professional for Associates of the Everglades and the Middle for Organic Range.
“The administration believes it may well quietly stroll away and depart its mess for others to scrub up. The regulation won’t enable them to flee accountability. We’ll ask the courts to make sure that the environmental harm is absolutely addressed,” Schwiep stated in a press release Thursday.