Florida began processing migrants on Wednesday night at a newly completed detention complex deep in the Everglades that officials have dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.” Attorney General James Uthmeier said "hundreds of criminal illegal aliens" would arrive by bus and be routed quickly toward deportation once the facility, located on an isolated airstrip, becomes fully operational.
The compound occupies the disused Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport roughly 50 miles west of Miami. Constructed in just eight days, the camp is ringed by 8,500 meters of barbed wire, watched by more than 200 security cameras and staffed by about 400 guards, with the surrounding alligator- and python-filled wetlands serving as an additional deterrent to escape. It opens with space for 500–1,000 detainees and is designed to expand to as many as 5,000. Reuters estimates annual operating costs at about $450 million, paid largely through Federal Emergency Management Agency shelter funds.
Logistical control rests with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which will use the airport’s 10,000-foot runway for direct removal flights. Governor Ron DeSantis has already fast-tracked a second, 2,000-bed centre at Camp Blanding and has signalled interest in a third site in the Florida Panhandle as part of a broader mass-deportation strategy championed by President Donald Trump.
Environmental organisations and the Miccosukee and Seminole tribes have filed lawsuits alleging the project threatens fragile wetlands and sacred lands, and rights groups question conditions in the tent city after heavy rain caused minor flooding during Trump’s pre-opening visit. State officials say repairs are under way and that the structures can withstand Category 2 hurricane winds.
In the overnight hours, vans could be seen coming in and out of the (apparently) newly-christened "Alligator Alcatraz," the migrant detention facility deep in the Everglades. On a road that turns into the facility, a new sign also bears the name.
The first group of immigrants was scheduled to arrive at a new detention center deep in the Florida Everglades that officials have dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”
