Florida closes 'Alligator Alcatraz' immigrant detention center after nearly a year
Governor Ron DeSantis announced the closure of the temporary Everglades facility that processed 21,000 deportations, saying it served its purpose.
A temporary solution ends
Florida is dismantling the immigration detention centre known as Alligator Alcatraz after nearly a year of operations. Governor Ron DeSantis, speaking alongside White House border czar Tom Homan at the site in Ochopee, confirmed that the facility now has zero detainees and demobilization is underway. The tent camp was built hastily on an abandoned airstrip in the Everglades and opened in July 2025 to support President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
Alligator Alcatraz fulfilled the role it was designed to serve.
Conditions and criticism
From the start the facility drew lawsuits and condemnation. Human rights groups and an Amnesty International report described detainees kept in cages with up to 32 people in 93 square metres, allowed out only to eat. Former inmates reported worms in the food, toilets that did not flush, floors flooded with faecal waste, and constant swarms of mosquitoes. Access to lawyers was severely limited. Environmental organisations also challenged the installation inside a national park.
It has helped remove many, many dangerous people from the street and get them out of not only the state of Florida but the United States of America.
Deportation numbers
DeSantis said the facility processed between 21,000 and 25,000 immigrants during its operational life, with all detainees either deported or transferred to other holding centres. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had already relocated more than 1,000 people in mid-June, citing the start of hurricane season, leaving the site mostly empty before the official closure announcement.
Federal funding and future
Florida officials stressed the centre was always intended as a stopgap. DeSantis said the Department of Homeland Security now has the resources and detention capacity to handle the caseload on its own, after Congress approved substantial border enforcement budgets, including a recent $70 billion package. The state will continue cooperating through 287(g) agreements, under which local police partner with immigration authorities; Florida leads the nation in such arrangements, accounting for 40% of related arrests.
Today, it now has zero detainees.
