Florida Begins Building 5,000-Bed ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Migrant Detention Center

Florida has begun building a temporary immigration detention center in the Everglades after the Department of Homeland Security signed off on the project. Proposed by Attorney General James Uthmeier and backed by Governor Ron DeSantis, the installation—dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz”—occupies the remote Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport about 45 miles west of Miami and is intended to expand federal capacity as the Trump administration steps up deportations.

The compound will rely on heavy-duty tents and trailers to house up to 5,000 migrants awaiting removal, with the first 1,000 beds expected within weeks. Operating costs are projected at roughly US$245 per detainee per day, or about US$450 million a year, much of it reimbursed to the state through FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program. A 10,500-foot runway adjacent to the site will allow direct deportation flights, while the surrounding swamp—home to alligators, crocodiles and pythons—provides a natural barrier.

Environmental groups Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity sued in federal court on 27 June, arguing the state and federal governments bypassed required reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act for construction inside the Big Cypress National Preserve, habitat for the endangered Florida panther. Demonstrators lined U.S. 41 over the weekend to protest the project’s ecological and humanitarian impact.

State lawyers contend the facility is temporary and poses minimal harm, and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has praised the plan as a quicker, less costly alternative to long-term private contracts. DeSantis says “Alligator Alcatraz” will receive its first detainees on 1 July and that officials are considering a second detention site at Camp Blanding near Jacksonville if additional capacity is required.