Florida Closes 'Alligator Alcatraz.' DeSantis Says the Everglades Camp Has Done Its Job.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday that the state has closed the Everglades immigration detention center known as "Alligator Alcatraz," shutting the tent-and-trailer site less than a year after it opened.

DeSantis announced the closure at a news conference at the facility, built around an isolated airstrip in the Everglades, alongside White House border czar Tom Homan. He said no detainees remain on site and that he expects the structures to be fully dismantled within a week or two. The airstrip, the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, will keep operating.

The state had already emptied the camp. Officials announced a temporary closure earlier in June and moved everyone out, saying hurricane season made it unsafe to hold people in the Everglades. Lawyers for detainees said their clients were transferred to facilities in South Florida, California, Arizona, Louisiana and Texas, and that families and attorneys were not told where the detainees had gone for about a week.

What the site was

Florida built the facility in a matter of days and began holding detainees there in July 2025, part of the Trump administration's deportation push. Trump and then Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem joined DeSantis at the July 1, 2025, opening. The camp consisted of large tents and trailers, with rows of bunk beds inside chain-link enclosures.

DeSantis described the site as a stopgap. He said the state stood it up because the federal government lacked detention space and that the Department of Homeland Security now has the capacity to take over.

"DHS is on a better footing, DHS has more capacity to be able to handle these folks, and I always said, 'we're only doing this because it's necessary,'" DeSantis said, according to ABC News.

He put the facility's throughput at more than 20,000 people held and 21,000 deportations carried out through the site. Those are the governor's figures.

What it cost

The camp was projected to cost Florida about $450 million a year, according to ABC News, which cited a person familiar with the figure. State officials have said some of that money would be reimbursed through the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Shelter and Services Program.

Asked at the news conference whether Florida would be repaid by the federal government, DeSantis pointed to Homan and the president.

"I was there with Tom and the president, and the president said, 'Get Florida their money,' and Tom's going to make sure of it," DeSantis said, per ABC News.

Homan praised DeSantis and signaled that Florida would keep a role in immigration enforcement. "Gov. DeSantis did a good job, and he's going to continue doing what he's doing to help us make this country safe again," Homan said, according to the Associated Press account published by PBS. "This isn't the end of relationship. This is a continuation."

The lawsuits

The facility drew legal challenges from the day it opened. The American Civil Liberties Union sued over detainees' access to lawyers. ABC News reported that last month a federal judge denied the administration's request to pause an order requiring the government to provide detainees access to counsel.

Environmental groups sued separately, arguing that Florida built the site without the permits and impact reviews that the law requires. Paul J. Schwiep, an attorney for Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, said the closure does not end that case.

"The administration believes it can quietly walk away and leave its mess for others to clean up. The law will not allow them to escape accountability. We will ask the courts to ensure that the environmental damage is fully addressed," Schwiep said in a statement, per PBS.

What detainees and advocates said

Detainees and immigrant advocates described conditions at the camp as unsafe. Accounts collected by the Associated Press included worms in the food, toilets that did not flush, floors flooded with waste, swarming insects, air conditioning that cut out in the heat, and stretches without showers or prescription medicine. The accounts could not be independently verified here and are attributed to detainees and their advocates.

The Florida Immigrant Coalition said the only beneficiaries were contractors who were paid to run the site. The ACLU welcomed the shutdown.

"The fact that this site ever existed is a travesty, given the cruelty behind it, horrific conditions, and blatant violations of due process," said Carmen Iguina González, deputy director for immigration detention with the ACLU's National Prison Project, in a statement reported by ABC News. She added that the conditions "reflect systemic patterns of abuse at other ICE detention facilities nationwide."

DeSantis defended the operation. "There is no question this mission has made the state of Florida safer," he said, citing the deportation figure.

What happens next

The detainees are gone and the tents are coming down, but the disputes outlive the camp. The environmental case continues, and the question of who pays for the site, Florida or Washington, is unresolved. Homan said Florida's part in immigration enforcement is not over.