{"id":128,"date":"2026-05-08T08:13:48","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T08:13:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=128"},"modified":"2026-05-08T08:13:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T08:13:48","slug":"the-end-of-alligator-alcatraz-desantis-says-it-would-be-great-to-shut-it-down-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=128","title":{"rendered":"The end of Alligator Alcatraz? DeSantis says it \u2018would be great\u2019 to shut it down"},"content":{"rendered":"<article><!-- --><!-- --><!-- WPS-5038 -- removed the script from WPS and added the placeholder for trinity player --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- CONTENT --><!--[--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Gov. Ron DeSantis is now backing plans to shutter Florida\u2019s state-run immigration detention facility in the Everglades, 10 months after the state opened it and after spending hundreds of millions of dollars on its construction and operation.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=127\">Man accused of several burglaries in Coral Gables and Miami Beach: police<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>He told reporters in Lakeland Thursday that \u201cit would be great for us to break that facility down,\u201d following a New York Times report that the Department of Homeland Security and state officials were considering closing Alligator Alcatraz.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>DeSantis said discussions with the federal government about shutting down the facility started after Markwayne Mullin was confirmed as the new DHS secretary in late March.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been discussed,\u201d DeSantis said of shutting down the facility. \u201cYou had a new secretary come in, take a fresh look at these things.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>DeSantis met with Tom Homan, the White House\u2019s \u201cborder czar,\u201d on Monday afternoon, according to his schedule. He said Thursday they talked about the $608 million DeSantis promised taxpayers was coming from the federal government to reimburse the state for the cost of the facility, but never arrived.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re getting it and you will see that very shortly,\u201d DeSantis vowed.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>The federal government has repeatedly said in federal court that it won\u2019t reimburse the DeSantis administration for the site construction costs, only per-detainee cost. That might leave Florida taxpayers still picking up the tab for the millions of dollars the state spent in quickly erecting the site in the middle of the Everglades.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>The apparent willingness to abandon the facility now marks a sudden heel turn for the state and federal administrations that have promoted the detention center as an exemplar for Trump\u2019s mass deportation agenda. The state spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in court fending off efforts to close it down, including recently overturning a Miami judge\u2019s order doing just that.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>They promoted it as an intentionally remote, scary place to deter people from migrating to the U.S., even as it became, for critics, an example of the Trump administration\u2019s wide net and cruel treatment of immigrants.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>The potential shuttering of Alligator Alcatraz now is part of a larger effort by DHS to shift its approach toward immigration enforcement, according to DeSantis.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom my conversations with Tom, the mission continues. How you do that mission matters. And how some of this stuff happened in Minnesota, I think the agency looks at and said maybe they could have handled that a little bit differently,\u201d he said, pointing to the mass immigration crackdown and killing of two U.S. citizens protesting ICE in that state.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>When it comes to Alligator Alcatraz, \u201cif they decide that they have the resources, that this is not needed, well yeah, I mean we don\u2019t need to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=126\">Neighbors\u2019 complaints stall county\u2019s plan for Coconut Grove Playhouse \u2014 again<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>The governor has long defended the facility and his office has spent more than half a million dollars fighting court challenges against it. But, after the public revelation Thursday of plans to shut it down, he said that it was always meant to be temporary.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur goal on this was for that facility to be a bridge to DHS being able to do this,\u201d he added. \u201cWe\u2019re going to still cooperate, if we get people, we\u2019ll bring them to DHS. But they should be the ones, ideally, that would be able to simply hold, process, and then repatriate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>The Department of Homeland Security told the Miami Herald it was not \u201cpressuring\u201d the state to shut down the facility, but did not deny discussions about that possibility.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cDHS continuously evaluates detention needs and requirements to ensure they meet the latest operational requirements,\u201d a Department of Homeland spokesperson wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<h3>Critics react<\/h3>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Community activists and politicians celebrated the news of the facility\u2019s potential closure Thursday.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava on Thursday said on social media that the news of the site possibly closing was \u201clong overdue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor months, thousands have been detained there in inhumane conditions without meaningful due process\u2013while wasting millions of taxpayer dollars. It is time for dignity &amp; accountability to be restored,\u201d the post<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Broward County Democrat who visited the facility last month, echoed Levine Cava\u2019s statement, writing that \u201cthis wasteful cruelty must stop immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Katie Blankenship, founding attorney of Sanctuary of the South, a legal services organization, said though she and her clients hoped for the closure of the detention center, \u201cwe will believe it when we see it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Blankenship filed a declaration in federal court last month stating that one of her clients held at the site had been beaten and left with a black eye. She said Thursday the detention center was \u201crife with human rights abuses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=125\">Talking with Miami\u2019s KC Navarro and Dallas\u2019s Tatum Paxley. WWE NXT in Fort Pierce; TNA in Tampa<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s no question that it should be shut down immediately,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--]--><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DeSantis told reporters in Lakeland that Alligator Alcatraz could be shut down as DHS shifts enforcement strategy and a $608 million reimbursement is coming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":80,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-immigration"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The end of Alligator Alcatraz? 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