![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Alligator-Alcatraz.jpg\")
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An aerial view of Alligator Alcatraz. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tGet your news from a source that\u2019s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.<\/a><\/p>\n The notorious Florida\u00a0immigrant detention center known as \u201cAlligator Alcatraz\u201d may be winding down operations soon, Gov. Ron DeSantis acknowledged on Thursday. His remarks came just hours after the New York Times reported<\/a> that federal and state officials are in preliminary discussions about the facility\u2019s closure.<\/p>\n The DeSantis administration erected the makeshift detention camp in the Everglades last summer when the Department of Homeland Security needed more detention space to house immigrants pending their deportations. \u201cThis is going to be a force multiplier, and we\u2019re really happy to be working with the federal government to satisfy President Trump\u2019s mandate,\u201d DeSantis said last summer<\/a>. The detention facility has become a symbol of the Trump administration\u2019s relentless crackdown on immigrants.<\/p>\n At a press conference<\/a> in Lakeland, Florida, DeSantis said that Alligator Alcatraz has held nearly 22,000 immigrants who were eventually deported. \u201cI have no doubt that that has made the state of Florida safer,\u201d he said. \u201cWe stepped up when no other state stepped up to help in a very big way.\u201d He added that Alligator Alcatraz was always meant to be a temporary facility, \u201cIf we shut the lights on it tomorrow, we will be able to say it served its purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe stepped up when no other state stepped up to help in a very big way\u2026If we shut the lights on it tomorrow, we will be able to say it served its purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the last year, the center has come under fire both for its living conditions, its environmental impact on the Everglades, and that it was located on sacred tribal land<\/a>. As I reported in April:<\/p>\n Thousands of people have been detained there despite ongoing reports of mosquito infestations, flooding, poor medical care, lackluster food, and limited water access. Last month, two US senators said they\u00a0launched an investigation<\/a>\u00a0into reported abuses, including the use of \u201cthe box,\u201d in which detainees were allegedly shackled and held in small cages in direct sunlight for hours at a time. (A spokesperson for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which runs Alligator Alcatraz, told me recently that the allegations were \u201cfalse.\u201d) In recent weeks, the center landed\u00a0in the spotlight<\/a>\u00a0once again after attorneys representing immigrants held there told a judge that guards had assaulted and pepper-sprayed detainees who protested after the phones were shut off, less than a week after a federal judge ordered legal access should be expanded at the facility.<\/p>\n Alligator Alcatraz has also been at the center of a few lawsuits, including one filed by environmentalist groups who argued that construction had proceeded without an environmental review or opportunity for public comment, in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).\u00a0Florida and Trump officials argued that NEPA is restricted to federal agencies, and that the facility was operated and funded by the state, which has spent\u00a0at least $390 million<\/a>\u00a0to run it. Last month, an appeals court ruled that the center can remain open:<\/p>\n The three-judge panel heard\u00a0oral arguments<\/a>\u00a0in the case on April 7 and released a\u00a038-page ruling<\/a>\u00a0late Tuesday afternoon. In the 2\u20131 decision, judges concluded that the environmentalists failed to prove Alligator Alcatraz was under federal control. Florida also hasn\u2019t received any federal funding (though it is in the process of\u00a0requesting reimbursement<\/a>). \u201cFederal authority is, at most, indirect: it is involved in the construction only insofar as it sets the terms for which the facility may be used for detention of aliens, but Florida officials dedicated its land to that use,\u201d wrote Chief Judge William Pryor, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, in the majority opinion.\u00a0<\/p>\n Judge Nancy Abudu, a Biden appointee, wrote in her dissent that immigration is ultimately a federal obligation and the majority\u2019s ruling is \u201cjust plain wrong.\u201d \u201cSo long as Florida remains a willing participant in the federal government\u2019s immigration detention scheme, it subjects itself to the federal government\u2019s substantial control over the parties\u2019 joint efforts,\u201d she wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear when Alligator Alcatraz will close. As of this week, detainees were still being held there. Immigrant advocates and attorneys, however, were cautiously optimistic this week. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who has opposed the camp, said its closure is \u201clong overdue,\u201d she wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cFor months, thousands have been detained there in inhumane conditions without meaningful due process\u2013while wasting millions of taxpayer dollars. It is time for dignity & accountability to be restored.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An aerial view of Alligator Alcatraz. (Getty Images) Get your news from a source that\u2019s not owned and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-263601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}