Florida's 'Alligator Alcatraz' immigration detention center is closing, governor says

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The Florida immigration detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz” has shut down nearly a year after it was built in the Everglades, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday.

DeSantis said the center was always supposed to be open for only about a year until more permanent detention centers could be secured and now federal officials have that capacity.

“It served its purpose for the time,” the Republican governor said at a news conference.

Officials announced a temporary closure of the facility earlier in June, saying hurricane season made it unsafe to keep the detainees in the Everglades. All of the people kept at the isolated airstrip had been sent to other facilities.

Immigration advocates said the tents were never safe or humane to hold people. Detainees at the facility have talked about their difficulty accessing lawyers, and have described poor physical conditions, including worms in the food, toilets that don’t flush, flooding floors with fecal waste, and mosquitoes and other insects everywhere.

The detention center was built by DeSantis’ administration in a matter of days in 2025 and President Donald Trump came to visit site.

DeSantis and Trump said the detention center was critical to Republican efforts to return people in the country illegally back to their home countries. DeSantis said 21,000 people were deported through the facility.

“There is no question this mission has made the state of Florida safer," DeSantis said.

Advocates for immigrants said closing “Alligator Alcatraz” does nothing to stop the harm of people who spend months in custody as their families suffer.

The Florida Immigrant Coalition said the only winners were corporations and contractors who profited millions of dollars as Republicans pushed an immigration emergency that does not exist.

Lawyers for the immigrants at the facility said their clients suddenly started leaving for other facilities in South Florida, California, Arizona, Louisiana and Texas earlier this month, disappearing for about a week before their attorneys and families were told where they were sent.

DeSantis said the airstrip in the Everglades the facility was built around will continue to be used.