{"id":270753,"date":"2026-05-14T11:41:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T11:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/270753\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T11:41:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T11:41:20","slug":"floridas-alligator-alcatraz-may-face-closure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/270753\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida\u2019s \u2018Alligator Alcatraz\u2019 may face closure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 So far, the start of the budget special session has been anything but typical. Committees are barely meeting and, if they are, only for a few minutes, with some of the biggest questions left behind the scenes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In the meantime, there\u2019s growing noise circulating the halls of the State Capitol around whether the state is getting reimbursed for putting up \u201cAlligator Alcatraz.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After recent reporting by <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/nytimes\/status\/2052417192394641894\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:The New York Times;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;The New York Times&quot;}\" class=\"link \">The New York Times<\/a> that the South Florida detention center could be closing soon, all eyes are on the governor and the federal government.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI haven\u2019t gotten any official word that they\u2019re going to not be sending illegal aliens there,\u201d said Governor Ron DeSantis at a press conference on Wednesday in Titusville.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Governor touted the facility as a success, saying it\u2019s even helped save taxpayers money.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat is the cost of allowing illegal immigration to continue to overrun our society? I think those costs are staggering. And so we have saved taxpayers money,\u201d said DeSantis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">But state democrats pushed back on that statement, arguing that it\u2019s been a waste of taxpayer dollars, and should have never opened in the first place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cI\u2019m pleased to hear about the closure, but there\u2019s still a lot of questions that we have as it pertains to accountability, but also cost,\u201d said State Rep. Anna Eskamani, (D-Orlando). \u201cThis has cost the people of Florida upwards of a billion dollars, and there is no commitment to be 100% reimbursed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Senate Budget Chair Ed Hooper however says, the money may be around the corner.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe feds came out this week and there\u2019s, there\u2019s a hopeful possibility that funding will be coming ASAP, maybe this week,\u201d said Hooper at a Transportation Budget Committee meeting this week.<\/p>\n<p>At this time, it remains unknown if, when, and how much the state will be receiving from the federal government for \u201cAlligator Alcatraz.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThere\u2019s so much passing the buck here, but I think it\u2019s pretty clear the state of Florida is responsible. I mean, this facility never would have opened if it wasn\u2019t for the state of Florida consenting to it,\u201d said Eskamani.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfla.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.&quot;}\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 So far, the start of the budget special session has been anything but typical.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,37790,412],"class_list":["post-270753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-illegal-aliens","tag-ron-desantis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270753","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=270753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}