They Were Held in Cages in the Florida Sun. Now “Alligator Alcatraz” May Finally Be Shutting Down.

The notorious Florida immigrant detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz” may be winding down operations soon, Gov. Ron DeSantis acknowledged on Thursday. His remarks came just hours after the New York Times reported that federal and state officials are in preliminary discussions about the facility’s closure.

The DeSantis administration erected the makeshift detention camp in the Everglades last summer when the Department of Homeland Security needed more detention space to house immigrants pending their deportations. “This is going to be a force multiplier, and we’re really happy to be working with the federal government to satisfy President Trump’s mandate,” DeSantis said last summer. The detention facility has become a symbol of the Trump administration’s relentless crackdown on immigrants.

At a press conference in Lakeland, Florida, DeSantis said that Alligator Alcatraz has held nearly 22,000 immigrants who were eventually deported. “I have no doubt that that has made the state of Florida safer,” he said. “We stepped up when no other state stepped up to help in a very big way.” He added that Alligator Alcatraz was always meant to be a temporary facility, “If we shut the lights on it tomorrow, we will be able to say it served its purpose.”

“We stepped up when no other state stepped up to help in a very big way…If we shut the lights on it tomorrow, we will be able to say it served its purpose.”

Over the last year, the center has come under fire both for its living conditions**,** its environmental impact on the Everglades, and that it was located on sacred tribal land. As I reported in April:

Thousands of people have been detained there despite ongoing reports of mosquito infestations, flooding, poor medical care, lackluster food, and limited water access. Last month, two US senators said they launched an investigation into reported abuses, including the use of “the box,” in which detainees were allegedly shackled and held in small cages in direct sunlight for hours at a time. (A spokesperson for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which runs Alligator Alcatraz, told me recently that the allegations were “false.”) In recent weeks, the center landed in the spotlight once again after attorneys representing immigrants held there told a judge that guards had assaulted and pepper-sprayed detainees who protested after the phones were shut off, less than a week after a federal judge ordered legal access should be expanded at the facility.

Alligator Alcatraz has also been at the center of a few lawsuits, including one filed by environmentalist groups who argued that construction had proceeded without an environmental review or opportunity for public comment, in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Florida and Trump officials argued that NEPA is restricted to federal agencies, and that the facility was operated and funded by the state, which has spent at least $390 million to run it. Last month, an appeals court ruled that the center can remain open:

The three-judge panel heard oral arguments in the case on April 7 and released a 38-page ruling late Tuesday afternoon. In the 2–1 decision, judges concluded that the environmentalists failed to prove Alligator Alcatraz was under federal control. Florida also hasn’t received any federal funding (though it is in the process of requesting reimbursement). “Federal authority is, at most, indirect: it is involved in the construction only insofar as it sets the terms for which the facility may be used for detention of aliens, but Florida officials dedicated its land to that use,” wrote Chief Judge William Pryor, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, in the majority opinion.

Judge Nancy Abudu, a Biden appointee, wrote in her dissent that immigration is ultimately a federal obligation and the majority’s ruling is “just plain wrong.” “So long as Florida remains a willing participant in the federal government’s immigration detention scheme, it subjects itself to the federal government’s substantial control over the parties’ joint efforts,” she wrote.

It’s unclear when Alligator Alcatraz will close. As of this week, detainees were still being held there. Immigrant advocates and attorneys, however, were cautiously optimistic this week. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who has opposed the camp, said its closure is “long overdue,” she wrote on X. “For months, thousands have been detained there in inhumane conditions without meaningful due process–while wasting millions of taxpayer dollars. It is time for dignity & accountability to be restored.”