Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Opens, Holds First Migrant Detainees

Florida transferred the first group of undocumented migrants on 3 July to the newly built detention complex nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz,” a tent-city erected on the runway of the remote Dade–Collier Training and Transition Airport in the Everglades. State emergency-management officials said the site was completed in eight days under Governor Ron DeSantis’s direction and opened one day after former President Donald Trump toured the facility.

The center has an initial capacity of about 3,000 beds and is designed to expand in 500-bed increments to roughly 5,000, according to state and federal briefings. Officials cite more than 200 security cameras, nearly 28,000 ft of barbed wire and up to 1,000 staff, with operating costs estimated at US$245 per detainee per day, or around US$450 million a year at full capacity. Migrants arrested under the federal 287(g) program can be flown out directly from the adjoining runway for deportation hearings.

The Department of Homeland Security said no federal funds had been committed to the project, emphasising that construction and operations are being financed with state money. Environmental groups, Native American tribes and human-rights advocates have filed suit to block the facility, arguing it threatens the fragile Everglades ecosystem and exposes detainees to extreme heat and flooding. State officials say the compound can withstand a Category 2 hurricane and is intended to deter unlawful entry by its austere location and fortified design.