Now Reading: ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ closure may leave Florida on hook for $218 million
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‘Alligator Alcatraz’ closure may leave Florida on hook for $218 million
‘Alligator Alcatraz’ closure may leave Florida on hook for $218 million
‘Alligator Alcatraz’ may empty in days, state official says
Florida’s immigration detention facility, nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz,” may be empty within days, according to an email from a state official.
Fox – 35 Orlando
- Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” immigrant detention center may soon be empty after a judge ordered its closure.
- The state invested $218 million in the facility, which has faced lawsuits and protests over conditions and environmental impact.
- Despite the court order, Florida officials are appealing and plan to continue operations.
Less than two months after a controversial South Florida immigrant detention center launched to Republican fanfare, alligator-themed merch, a visit from President Donald Trump, lawsuits and protests, “Alligator Alcatraz” may be empty soon with a $218 million price tag.
The Department of Homeland Security has started moving detainees out of the mass detention facility in the Big Cypress National Preserve in the Everglades, Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a press conference Aug. 27, days after a federal judge ordered a stop to new construction and blocked the transfer of any new detainees.
In a preliminary injunction during a lawsuit filed by environmental groups and joined by the Miccosukee Tribe, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams on Aug. 7 issued a temporary restraining order against new construction. Two weeks later, she doubled down and ordered the state and federal government to close it up within 60 days. The state appealed, but on Aug. 27 Williams denied the state’s motion.
Florida Division of Emergency Management executive director Kevin Guthrie, in an email sent to a South Florida rabbi on Aug. 22, said that “we are probably going to be down to 0 individuals within a few days.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis won’t let it go without a fight, though, and both he and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier — who first suggested and championed the Everglades facility — has vowed that operations will continue.
Since its launch on July 3 less than two weeks after it was announced, the Everglades facility has faced charges of inhumane living conditions and detainee civil rights violations. The environmental lawsuit accuses the state of failing to have a federally required impact investigation done. More lawsuits on plaintiffs’ legal rights, including lack of access to attorneys and whether the state has the legal authority to operate the site, are working their way through the courts.
Meanwhile, Florida is already planning a second site and Indiana and Nebraska have similar sites planned.
What is ‘Alligator Alcatraz’?
The South Florida Detention Facility, nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz” by Uthmeier, is a temporary detainment site in a remote location in the Florida Everglades designed to hold undocumented imigrants taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials and law enforcement where they can be processed and flown out of the country.
Previously, it was the Miami-Dade Collier Training and Transition Airport, a 39-square-mile airport facility with a 10,500-foot runway. Now surrounded by more than five miles of barbed wire, the tent city was scheduled to hold up to 3,000 detainees and was staffed by 1,000 workers and 400 guards.
The site was launched with breathtaking speed as both DeSantis and the Trump administration ramp up aggressive, widespread efforts to seize and ship out undocumented immigrants in Florida and across the country. State officials have said dentention sites such as this are necessary to alleviate crowding at local jails and state prisons from the increased arrests.
How much did ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ cost Florida?
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It’s not gone yet. But the Florida Division of Emergency Management said in court filings that the state has invested $218 million to convert the largely abandoned airstrip into a detention center consisting of chain-link and barbed wire fences surrounding an array of white tents full of bunk beds.
Shutting the facility down, even temporarily, would cost the state $15-$20 million, with a similar amount needed if Florida is allowed to reopen it, the state said.
An Associated Press analysis of publicly available data revealed that Florida signed at least $405 million in vendor contracts to build and run the facility.
What is ‘Deportation Depot’?
Florida governor announces “Deportation Depot” detention facility
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the opening of a new immigration detention facility in north Florida, dubbed “Deportation Depot”.
unbranded – Newsworthy
DeSantis announced the state’s second detention site, nicknamed “Deportation Depot,” would open at Baker Correctional Institution, a prison in Sanderson closed due to staffing shortages.
Previously, Camp Blanding in Clay County, Florida, was planned, but the governor said the Baker CI facility would be cheaper and only cost about $6 million to get it “up and running.”
The facility at Baker CI would likely not face the environmental issues plaguiing the first site, but legal challenges over how detainees are treated and processed will almost certainly continue.
