Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday confirmed the Alligator Alcatraz immigrant detention center is closing, but insisted the collection of reinforced tents in the middle of the Everglades proved effective in bolstering President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts in Florida.
Read more Venezuelans search rubble for survivors after 2 strong quakes kill at least 188
“Alligator Alcatraz fulfilled the role that it was designed to serve,” DeSantis told reporters at Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, where the facility was housed.
But critics slammed the expensive facility, as they have since its hasty, highly-touted launch a year ago. Following DeSantis’ announcement, state Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando. said the facility “is, and will forever be, a stain on our state’s and our nation’s history.”
The facility, which DeSantis has said was always meant to be temporary, was established as Florida officials looked to create more bed space for migrant detainees set for deportation amid the second Trump administration’s aggressive efforts to increase immigration enforcement. It officially opened on July 1.
Earlier this month, the federal Department of Homeland Security announced the detainees there would be moved from the facility.
“The mission continues, but DHS is in a better footing,” DeSantis said. “DHS has more capacity to be able to handle these folks.”
Detainees and their attorneys regularly complained of substandard conditions at the tent facility, with limited access to phones and medical treatment. Conservationists said that required environmental reviews were skirted.
Joined Thursday by White House border czar Tom Homan and Anthony Coker, executive director of the State Board of Immigration Enforcement, DeSantis told a different story, saying that nearly 21,000 detainees over the course of the last year were flown out of the U.S. from Alligator Alcatraz.
Florida’s second mass detention center, a former state prison in Baker County re-dubbed “Deportation Depot,” remains open.
Alligator Alcatraz cost Florida over $1 billion to create and operate, and a promised $608 million federal reimbursement has been slow in coming. On May 18, Florida received its first payment of $58 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Florida Phoenix reported.
DeSantis on Thursday blamed a slow-moving bureaucracy for the delay, telling reporters the state recently received a FEMA reimbursement related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s just the way they operate,” he said, “but I know that Tom is going to help grease the skids on some of that.”
DeSantis’ announcement followed news reports of Alligator Alcatraz’s impending closure, as CBS News reported Monday that companies hired by the state to operate the facility were notified to begin a “full demobilization.”
Read more Demolition greets Sweden at its World Cup base camp during FC Dallas renovation project
A week earlier, all detainees were reportedly moved to other facilities, which DHS said was because of concerns ahead of the coming hurricane season.
In response to those reports, DeSantis consistently said he was unaware the facility would be closing, until his acknowledgement in the Thursday press conference.
DeSantis has been at the forefront in backing federal immigration authorities in rounding up migrants for deportation. Last year, Florida became the first state to have most local and state law enforcement agencies sign 287(g) agreements with DHS requiring them to support immigration enforcement operations.
The state also created a $250 million grant program for law enforcement agencies and jails seeking new equipment and bonuses for its officers working on immigration enforcement and detainee transport. To date, $12.3 million have been disbursed through that fund, according to Transparency Florida.
That Alligator Alcatraz was opened, operated and eventually closed after thousands were deported, Coker said, “means mission success for Florida.”
Since Trump’s return to office, Florida makes up 40% of arrests under those agreements nationwide, DeSantis said, a figure praised by Homan as being “beyond any other state in country, by far.”
Many of those arrests, including in Central Florida, were the result of traffic stops, while the overall push to boost the number of deportations saw a surge of arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement outside of jails and prisons, often targeting people with no criminal convictions.
In Trump’s first year in office, these “street arrests” by ICE exploded by more than 1000%, while arrests of people without criminal convictions increased more than eightfold compared to July 2024, according to . That analysis was rejected by DHS, which insists immigration authorities are going after “the worst of the worst” while saying the report cherry-picks data.
“We hope more governors follow the lead of Gov. DeSantis,” said Homan, who called Trump “the greatest president in my lifetime.”
Following reports ahead of DeSantis’ announcement, Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried in a statement Wednesday blasted Alligator Alcatraz as being a costly “cynical political stunt” and lauded activists and lawmakers who sought its closure.
“Floridians deserve leaders focused on the challenges families face every day—lowering costs, making housing affordable, expanding access to healthcare, strengthening public schools, and safeguarding our environment—not politicians who exploit human suffering and waste public dollars for political gain,” Fried said.
Read more All-Area Girls Tennis: Lake Nona’s Aspen Wooten is Sentinel’s Player of the Year