Ron DeSantis Says Florida May Shut Down ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Immigration Detention Center

Gov. Ron DeSantis acknowledged Thursday that Florida may soon shutter “Alligator Alcatraz,” the immigration detention center built in the middle of the Everglades, and he said the facility was always intended to be temporary.

“'Alligator Alcatraz' immigration detention center was meant to be temporary: DeSantis Florida Gov”

ABC News

Speaking in Lakeland, DeSantis said, “If we shut the lights out tomorrow, we will be able to say it served its purpose,” and he added that the center was meant to be a “bridge” for the federal government’s deportation efforts.

ABC News

Politico reported that DeSantis did not give an exact timeline for closure and said the ultimate determination would come from the Department of Homeland Security, after former Secretary Kristi Noem was replaced in March.

The New York Times reported that federal and state officials are in talks to shut down the center and that DHS officials have concluded it is too expensive to keep operating, with the shutdown talks described as preliminary.

The facility opened last summer and has processed and deported nearly 22,000 people, according to DeSantis, who said people would have been released back into the community if the detention center had not been opened.

The Department of Homeland Security denied reports that it was urging Florida to cease operations, with a DHS spokesperson telling NewsNation, “Any reports that DHS is pressuring the state to cease operations at Alligator Alcatraz are false.”

NewsNation reported that DHS said Florida remains “a valuable partner” in advancing President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda and that the department “regularly reviews detention needs to meet operational demands.”

Associated Press

DeSantis told reporters in Lakeland that federal officials “haven’t said they want to wind it down,” while the New York Times reported that DHS officials have come to consider the center ineffective.

The New York Times also said the DeSantis administration has been spending more than $1 million a day to run the center in a swampy, isolated area between Miami and Naples, and that some private vendors hired by the state have struggled to front costs.

In response to the closure discussion, DeSantis said, “It’s been discussed,” and he reiterated that the facility was designed to be temporary even as DHS continued to evaluate detention needs and requirements.

Florida has sought federal reimbursement for the detention center’s operating costs, and WCTV reported that the state has not yet received the $608 million it has requested.

“El gobernador Ron DeSantis asegura que la infame instalación para migrantes denunciada por sus pésimas condiciones “siempre fue diseñada como algo temporal” El infame centro de detenciónAlligator Alcatraz, en los Everglades —al oeste de Miami—, levantado hace 10 meses como emblema de la agenda antiinmigrante de Donald Trump y que se ha convertido en un símbolo de la crueldad de la Administración hacia los migrantes, podría estar aproximándose a su fin”

EL PAÍS

WCTV said DeSantis expects reimbursement from the federal government and described the closure as dependent on whether DHS “feels it has the resources to house detainees elsewhere,” while the Department of Homeland Security denied it was urging Florida to cease operations.

Politico reported that DHS did not directly answer what the timeline was for reimbursing the state, saying only that the agency reviews requests “to ensure costs are allowable and validated expenses that are eligible for reimbursement prior to releasing funding.”

DeSantis said the center has worked in the federal illegal immigration crackdown and argued that it processed and deported “almost 22,000 illegal aliens,” while also saying “If we shut the lights out tomorrow, we will be able to say it served its purpose.”

The New York Times reported that the shutdown talks are preliminary and that DHS officials have concluded the center is too expensive to keep operating, leaving the future of the Everglades facility tied to federal decisions and funding outcomes.