Alligator Alcatraz Will Shut Down, Gov. DeSantis Says

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday that the “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention center has permanently closed and the detainees have been relocated.

Officials announced a temporary closure of the facility earlier this month, sending all detainees to other facilities because hurricane season made it unsafe to keep them at the remote facility in the Everglades. The DeSantis administration opened the center last July, and 21,000 people have been deported through the facility.

“Alligator Alcatraz fulfilled the role that it was designed to serve,” Desantis said at a press conference, flanked by President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, and state immigration official Anthony Coke. “It now has zero detainees. It has helped remove many, many dangerous people from the street and get them out of not only the state of Florida, but the United States of America.”

The facility faced heavy criticism from immigration advocates and detainees during the year it was open — including complaints over safety and poor living conditions that included lights staying on throughout the night and bugs crawling into the facility.

The center operated under 287(g), a government program that authorizes local law enforcement to conduct federal immigration functions, which DeSantis said the state would continue.

“There is no question this mission has made the state of Florida safer,” DeSantis said.