{"id":641062,"date":"2026-05-13T18:16:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/641062\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T18:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:16:14","slug":"failed-experiment-in-human-suffering-alligator-alcatraz-immigration-jail-to-close-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/641062\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Failed experiment in human suffering\u2019: Alligator Alcatraz immigration jail to close | Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

An alliance of environmental groups and immigration advocates has welcomed what looks to be the imminent closure of Alligator Alcatraz, the notorious immigration jail in the remote Florida Everglades celebrated by Donald Trump<\/a> for its harsh conditions.<\/p>\n

State officials told vendors at the facility on Tuesday to prepare for a breakdown of the tented camp beginning next month, the New York Times reported<\/a>, citing its ongoing cost.<\/p>\n

It was revealed in March<\/a> that Ron DeSantis, Florida\u2019s Republican governor, spent $1.2m a day opening and operating the camp that quickly attracted headlines for the brutal treatment<\/a> of detainees, and had essentially given up on a promised $608m rebate from the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

At a press conference in Titusville on Wednesday, DeSantis dodged the direct question if Alligator Alcatraz, run by his state\u2019s division of emergency management for the homeland security department (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), would close.<\/p>\n

But he spoke as if the camp, which he said had processed 22,000 undocumented immigrants since it opened last July, was about to be dismantled.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t build any permanent facilities down there because we knew it was going to be temporary,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were only doing it because the federal government didn\u2019t have the resources to hold these people themselves. Now they\u2019ve gotten a lot of money. Over the last nine months, they\u2019ve been able to work and adjust their operations accordingly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they have beds, other places where they\u2019re able to do it, that\u2019s fine. It was never meant to be permanent.\u201d<\/p>\n

A homeland security department spokesperson, meanwhile, told the Guardian in a statement that \u201cany reports that DHS is pressuring the state to cease operations at Alligator Alcatraz are false.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlorida continues to be a valuable partner in advancing President Trump\u2019s immigration agenda, and DHS appreciates their support. DHS continuously evaluates detention needs and requirements to ensure they meet the latest operational requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Trump and DeSantis, a loyal foot soldier to the president\u2019s fiercely anti-immigrant agenda, have celebrated insalubrious conditions at the jail, which opened last summer on mosquito-infested land 50 miles (80km) west of Miami, and currently holds up to 1,400 prisoners in metal cages.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might be as good as the real Alcatraz. A little controversial, but I couldn\u2019t care less,\u201d Trump said after touring the site in July 2025, a month in which temperatures in the Everglades regularly exceed 100F (37.8C).<\/p>\n

Human rights groups have complained about cruel and inhumane conditions<\/a> there, including torture, forced disappearances and denial of legal representation<\/a>. State and federal officials have denied any mistreatment.<\/p>\n

Separately, environmental advocates have pursued a lawsuit seeking the camp\u2019s closure, arguing its hasty construction on the site of a training airport caused irreparable damage to the fragile wetlands of the Everglades and ancient homelands of the Miccosukee tribe.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlligator Alcatraz is a stain on our nation and a blight on the Everglades, and I look forward to watching this depraved facility bite the dust,\u201d said Elise Bennett, Florida and Caribbean director and attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to let Florida and the Trump administration off the hook for the irreparable harm they\u2019ve done to Big Cypress [preserve] and the critically endangered creatures who live there. Now it\u2019s time to push for full restoration and protection of this site so a travesty like this never happens again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennett\u2019s group, in partnership with Friends of the Everglades, is fighting an appeals court ruling<\/a> last month that overturned an August district court decision<\/a> ordering the shuttering of Alligator Alcatraz\u201d.<\/p>\n

Attorney Paul Schwiep, who represents the groups, said the legal fight would continue even if the camp closed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile it is welcome news that people will no longer be inhumanely confined at this facility, the damage caused by this reckless and ill-conceived endeavor cannot simply be abandoned and forgotten,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis project was recklessly advanced without any meaningful regard for the remote, environmentally sensitive and ecologically fragile landscape in which it was imposed. The fencing, lighting, paving and other infrastructure \u2013 all constructed without environmental permits, review, or analysis \u2013 must be removed, and any lingering harm remediated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida Democratic politicians welcomed its apparently imminent closure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Everglades internment camp\u2019s closure is long overdue,\u201d said Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a US representative, in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis monument to cruelty, waste and environmental and tribal lands abuse should have never been built. At my surprise oversight inspection last month, I saw atrocious conditions that Florida taxpayers were forced to spend over $1m a day on, just to cram people with no criminal history into cages and trample our sensitive Everglades.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis camp isn\u2019t closing because ICE leaders found a conscience. It\u2019s closing because the Trump administration still refuses to pay back Florida taxpayers more than $1bn in tax dollars they basically lit on fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maxwell Frost, another US representative who has vocally opposed the facility\u2019s operation, condemned what he said was \u201ca failed experiment in human suffering\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said in a statement: \u201cFrom the day Alligator Alcatraz opened, I was on the ground conducting oversight into the inhumane conditions inside this facility, and I went back again and again to expose what was happening and fight to shut it down.<\/p>\n

\u201cHuman beings were subjected to horrific conditions, denied dignity, and treated as less than human in a facility that never should have existed in the first place. Floridians deserve accountability for every dollar wasted and every abuse that took place behind those doors.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Workers Circle, a New York-based advocacy group, said it would continue to hold vigils at Alligator Alcatraz<\/a> every weekend until the last detainee had left and the camp broken down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis cannot become America,\u201d Noelle Damico, the group\u2019s director of social justice, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only option was to fight this detention center, shine a light on its brutality, demand its closure, and end the abduction, detention, disappearance, and deportation of our neighbors, family members, and friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Damico said her group had helped replicate the vigils at least 18 other \u201csites of harm\u201d around the country, including detention centers, ICE courts and county jails.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur nation must end the replication of this model elsewhere and a full investigation must be undertaken into the corruption, abuse, and profiteering,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Miami Herald reported last year<\/a> that many private companies that won contracts at Alligator Alcatraz had donated to DeSantis or other Republican politicians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An alliance of environmental groups and immigration advocates has welcomed what looks to be the imminent closure of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-641062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}