Shuttered ‘alligator Alcatraz’ Leaves Complicated Legacy In Florida

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Last summer, a symbol of President Donald Trump’s campaign against illegal immigration quickly appeared amid the vast Florida Everglades. Less than a year later, the detention facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” was torn down almost as hastily as it was built.

But what began as an attention-grabbing effort to bolster Trump’s immigration agenda has left in its wake still-unresolved litigation, ongoing questions about sky-high costs and potential environmental impact, and uncertainty over what will happen to the property Florida commandeered from Miami-Dade County now that the facility is closed.

When the facility opened, the Republican Party of Florida sold themed merchandise — which can still be bought today — while Trump joked that detainees would have to learn to dodge alligators if they tried to escape. Those who championed the idea, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, contend it was a success that aligned with White House needs and led to the removal of almost 21,000 people from the country.

“I have no doubt that when you start talking about 21,000 folks that without question has made our state safer and it’s made the country safer as well,” DeSantis said last month while announcing the closure of the detention center.

Behind the scenes, however, multiple Republicans have quietly questioned the tremendous cost — standing at as much as $1 billion — associated with the temporary project. More vocal critics have lambasted the facility over everything from its location in an environmentally sensitive area to how detainees were treated.

“The funds allocated to Alligator Alcatraz were a missed opportunity,” said state Sen. Ileana Garcia, a Miami Republican in charge of the Senate budget panel that handles criminal justice issues.

Garcia, who has advocated spending more on upgrading the state’s beleaguered prison system, said a “portion” of the money spent on Alligator Alcatraz could have “been used to fund new, more cost-efficient facilities, improve staffing, salaries and address basic safety needs such as air conditioning and rehabilitation.”

The detention center was rapidly assembled in the Everglades in the summer of 2025 as the state relied on DeSantis’ emergency powers to take control of the small airstrip that already existed on the location. Its grand opening featured Trump, DeSantis and other Republican officials. This past week, The Miami Herald — citing aerial images — reported there were currently barely any traces of its existence.

While it was up and running, Alligator Alcatraz became a frequent source of conflict between Democrats and Republicans — and even after closing, is likely to remain a source of continued political tension. This week, two Democrats vying for a South Florida congressional seat sharply criticized each other over campaign contributions received from a contractor hired by the state for the project.

Then there are questions about money and the location. Even as Alligator Alcatraz reaches its end, the future of the surrounding land remains in flux. Advocacy groups have called for a ban on future development, while several state and local officials have floated selling or giving the land to the federal government to be used for conservation.

State Attorney General James Uthmeier, who originally concocted the plan for Alligator Alcatraz and pitched it to the Trump administration, has said he would like to see the land become a protected environmental area. Uthmeier’s office did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Florida has not yet recouped all of the state money spent assembling and then tearing down the detention center from the Trump administration. At one point, the federal government announced it intended to grant Florida more than $600 million; most of that money has not yet been reimbursed. DeSantis has downplayed questions about reimbursements and said it takes time to get money back.

The state and federal government will also have to return to court to battle a lawsuit from last summer, in which environmental advocacy groups and the Miccosukee Tribe contested that constructing and operating Alligator Alcatraz harmed the surrounding environment and endangered species like the iconic Florida panther. The Center for Biological Diversity, one of the plaintiffs in the case, filed a separate lawsuit over air pollution violations but withdrew it this week after noting generators on the site had been dismantled.

The state and federal government have argued in court that the site was not required to abide by federal environmental laws because it was under state control. Now that the state has received federal money, that argument could be questioned during future hearings.

Environmental advocacy groups said they plan to forge ahead with their original legal challenge even though the state has been partially reimbursed and the facility is shuttered. The lawsuit could ultimately shed more light on how Alligator Alcatraz was run, how much it cost and what will happen to the land next.

“It’s going to be fact-finding on many fronts, specifically related to the environmental impacts of the facility,” said Elise Bennett, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. “And that absolutely does include what the future of this facility is.”

The future of the site may rest with Miami-Dade County, the owner of the nearly 24,000-acre parcel containing the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport.

As of Wednesday, the state had not responded to efforts from Miami-Dade County to repossess the land, nor issued a timeline for when it would return the land, according to Dianne Fernandez, a spokesperson for Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.

The governor’s office — as well as the Division of Emergency Management — has not responded to questions about the future of the site. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security called Florida a “valuable partner in advancing President Trump’s immigration agenda” but referred questions about the future of the site to state officials.

Friends of the Everglades, one of the environmental advocacy groups suing the state and federal government, has asked for a full remediation of the site. That includes public transparency and even potentially removing the runway that predated Alligator Alcatraz, said Eve Samples, the group’s executive director.

“It's important not to just push a deal through that is inked in secrecy,” Samples said. “We need to have something lasting for the Everglades and for the people of Florida to make amends for the harm that's just unfolded.”

The state has looked into removing the runway before but was told by the federal government that it wouldn’t be possible, said Rodney Barreto, the chair of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Before the state forged ahead on Alligator Alcatraz, Barreto said he approached Miami-Dade County with a proposal to buy the land and sought to turn the airport into a staging area for emergency response.

The airport’s location would make it ideal for responding to a hurricane, Barreto said, and the state wanted to donate the unused land surrounding the airport to the federal government for Everglades restoration.

“Prior to Alligator Alcatraz … if we bought the land and gave it back to the federal government, it would send a message to the environmental community, everybody, that there was not going to be a build-out of an airport here,” he said. “So that was the intent at the time.”

Once the dust around Alligator Alcatraz settles, Barreto said, he wants to revisit the state’s earlier plan. Levine Cava is also trying to resume those talks, according to the Miami Herald, and has also said she wants to pursue selling the land to the National Park Service.

“Any evaluation of the property's future, including existing infrastructure, would come after the property is returned to Miami-Dade County and the County has had an opportunity to fully assess the site, including environmental impacts and impacts to the airfield,” Levine Cava spokesperson Fernandez said.

A member of the Miccosukee Tribe has also said she wants the nation to become the new conservators of the land, but the tribe itself has not specified whether it will pursue ownership.

“The Miccosukee Tribe will continue to fulfill our responsibility as stewards of the Everglades,” Tribe Chair Talbert Cypress said in a statement. “Our commitment to protecting this land has never changed, and it never will.”