The state of Florida has closed its “Alligator Alcatraz” immigrant detention center roughly a year after it opened with more than $1 billion in taxpayer funds.
The Everglades facility erected on a former airstrip became notorious for its harsh mistreatment of detainees and for litigation targeting the state’s participation in federal immigration activities and for the state’s failure to conduct environmental assessments before opening the site in late June 2025.
“‘Alligator Alcatraz’ fulfilled the role it was designed to serve,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said in announcing the closure last month. “Today, it now has zero detainees. There’s no question that this mission has made the state of Florida safer.”
The governor also praised the facility for detaining more than 20,000 immigrants and described it as an example of how states can partner with federal immigration efforts. President Donald Trump toured the site last July.
However, numerous studies have shown only a fraction of the immigrants detained at the facility were “the worst of the worst” criminals in the nation, as the administration claimed.
Only a third of detainees at the facility during the summer of 2025 had any criminal records.
The Latin Times reported only a third of detainees at the facility during the summer of 2025 had any criminal records. Most had immigration violations only and no criminal convictions or charges.
Amnesty International issued a report documenting human rights violations at “Alligator Alcatraz,” including instances of torture at the facility operated “outside the law” under “despicable and nauseating conditions” and with “deliberate neglect.”
“These findings confirm a deliberate system built to punish, dehumanize and hide the suffering of people in detention,” the organization said. “The choice to prioritize punishment, dehumanization and cruelty over public welfare is as shortsighted as it is appalling.”
Multiple news reports now describe the location created to support Trump’s mass deportation campaign as if it had never existed.
“The bright blue sign reading ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ outside the silver chain-link gate at Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport has been removed. The airstrip, formerly used to hold immigrants in industrial tents, is now cleared with only a few structures and cars remaining,” the Miami Herald reported July 13.
Daniella Levine Cava
“This facility should never have been built,” said Daniella Levine Cava, mayor of Miami-Dade County. The county owns the site, which DeSantis forcibly took over by emergency order.
“For nearly a year, people, including some of our own residents, have been held there without meaningful due process on county-owned land within the Everglades ecosystem,” Cava said. “From the very beginning, I opposed its use and consistently called for accountability, transparency and the humane treatment of detainees.”
Emphasis will be placed on environmental restoration once the property is formally released by the state, Cava said, adding she intends to transfer the property to the National Park Service.
“These lands should never again be used for detention or other intensive development. They should be permanently preserved as part of one of the nation’s most important environmental restoration efforts.”
Atrocious conditions and the denial of due process rights at the facility resulted in a 2025 lawsuit by detainees who said they were denied access to legal counsel.
A federal judge agreed the detainees had a viable First Amendment case and allowed the litigation to continue. The case is ongoing.
Earlier this year, a federal appeals court overturned a lower court’s injunction ordering Florida to dismantle the facility for failing to conduct the environmental assessments required under federal law. The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed by environmentalists.
One of the groups that filed the suit sent Cava a letter July 2 urging “transparency and public input” in the process that will determine the property’s future. Friends of the Everglades also issued a plan for the remediation, restoration and protection of the Everglades moving forward.
Related:
Another court ruling says Alligator Alcatraz can stay open
Alligator Alcatraz’ appears headed for closure
Split decision in ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ case
Environmentalists win temporary pause at Alligator Alcatraz
Alligator Alcatraz tourism | Opinion by Justin Cox