By Evaristo Lara
Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, acknowledged that the Alligator Alcatraz immigration detention center will cease operating and will be dismantled in the coming weeks.
The facilities set up with the aim of detaining foreigners without upright status in the United States opened their doors in July 2025, after a visit by President Donald Trump to the Everglades, a natural site surrounded by swamps, alligators and other reptiles.
Since then, Alligator Alcatraz continues to be the subject of criticism initially coming from environmentalists pointing out alleged damage to the site’s natural ecosystem.
However, The strongest negative comments came from human rights organizations, pointing out that detained immigrants received inhumane treatment.
During a speech broadcast in the city of Titusville, Ron DeSantis expressed that the project to keep foreigners without upright status detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) safe was always conceived as something temporary.
“We didn’t build any permanent site there because we knew it was going to be temporary. Now, I haven’t received any official word that they are not going to send illegal aliens there,” he mentioned.
The Republican whose mandate is in the excellent line praised that in 10 months of operating in Alligator Alcatraz a record number of deportations was reached.
“DHS did not have the ability to hold these illegal aliens that we were apprehending. So, because we did that with their support and their reimbursement, “We were able to process and deport 22,000 who otherwise would have left back to Florida communities,” he stressed.
However, the controversial point for the Florida government is that it did not receive a single dollar of the $608 million spent so far to keep the detention center located in the heart of the Everglades wetland, an ecological reserve in southern Florida, operating.
Pending official notice, it is projected that, over the next few weeks, detained immigrants will be transferred to other facilities and activity at Alligator Alcatraz will gradually decrease until it closes permanently.
Keep reading:
• Florida could end up paying the cost of the Alligator Alcatraz immigration detention center
• Court allows Alligator Alcatraz to reopen despite environmental dispute in Florida
• Amnesty International documents overcrowding and mistreatment detected at Alligator Alcatrazz
