Florida's infamous 'Alligator Alcatraz' immigration detention center is set to close.

Citing the project's high cost, state officials warned contractors on May 12 to prepare to dismantle the camp. Its dismantling will begin next month, according to The Guardian.

Back in March, it was revealed that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was spending approximately $1,2 million a day to establish and maintain the camp, which quickly became the focus of attention for its brutal treatment of detainees. Meanwhile, the state effectively refused a previously promised $608 million in compensation from the Trump administration.

At a press conference in Titusville on Wednesday, May 12, DeSantis avoided a direct answer to the question of whether the camp would be closed. However, his statements made it sound as if dismantling was already inevitable.

On the subject: At the Alligator Alcatraz Detention Center, prisoners are beaten and starved.

The camp opened last July. It is run by the state's Division of Emergency Management, along with the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. According to the governor, approximately 22,000 undocumented immigrants have passed through the camp.

"We didn't build any permanent structures there initially because we understood that it was a temporary measure," DeSantis said.

According to him, the camp was created because federal authorities lacked the resources to hold prisoners.

"They now have funding, and over the past nine months, they've been able to get their work up and running. If they have space in other institutions, that's fine. This facility was never intended to be permanent," he added.

At the same time, a representative of the US Department of Homeland Security stated that reports of pressure on Florida authorities to close the camp are not true.

"Florida remains a vital partner in implementing President Trump's immigration policies. The Department continually evaluates its detention needs to ensure they align with current missions," he noted.

 

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Both Trump and DeSantis, one of the most consistent supporters of the president's hardline anti-immigration stance, have previously openly praised the harsh conditions at the camp. It opened last summer in a mosquito-infested marshland about 80 kilometers west of Miami. Currently, up to 1400 people can be held there at a time in metal cages.

After visiting the site in July 2025, Trump shared his opinion: "It might not even be as bad as the real Alcatraz. It's controversial, but I don't care." That month, temperatures in the Everglades regularly exceeded 100.4°F (37,8°C).

Human rights organizations have alleged cruel and inhumane conditions in prisons, including torture, enforced disappearances, and denial of access to lawyers. State and federal authorities deny these allegations.

Meanwhile, environmental groups are pursuing legal action to close the camp, arguing that its hasty construction on the site of a training airfield has caused irreparable damage to the fragile Everglades ecosystem and lands historically belonging to the Miccosukee Nation.

"Alligator Alcatraz is a stain on the country's reputation and a blow to the Everglades," said Elise Bennett of the Center for Biological Diversity. She added that even if the site is closed, authorities must restore the area and repair the damage.

Bennett's organization, along with Friends of the Everglades, is challenging an appeals court ruling that overturned the camp's closure last August.

Lawyer Paul Schwiep, representing the environmentalists, emphasized that the legal battle will continue even after the site is closed. He stated that the camp's infrastructure (fencing, lighting, road surfaces) was built without environmental permits and must be completely dismantled, and the damage repaired.

Florida Democrats welcomed the camp's expected closure.

Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz called it "a symbol of cruelty, waste, and disregard for nature and indigenous rights." She said taxpayers were forced to spend more than $1 million a day to house people with no criminal records in conditions she described as appalling.

"This camp is closing not because Immigration and Customs Enforcement has suddenly come to its senses, but because the Trump administration is refusing to return more than $1 billion in budget funds to Florida," she explained.

Another congressman, Maxwell Frost, called the project "a failed experiment on suffering people." From the camp's opening, he personally monitored the situation and pushed for its closure.

"People there were deprived of their dignity and treated inhumanely. This facility should never have been built," he concluded.

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The New York-based human rights organization The Workers Circle intends to continue weekly protests at the camp until it is completely closed and the last detainee leaves its premises.

"This practice should not exist in America," concluded the organization's representative, Noelle Damico. According to her, activists are holding similar protests in at least 18 other locations across the country—at immigration detention centers, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement courthouses, and county jails.

She called for a full investigation into possible abuses and corruption.

The Miami Herald previously reported that many private companies awarded contracts to work at the Alligator Alcatraz site made donations to DeSantis and other Republican politicians.

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