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The Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, reiterated that the Alligator Alcatraz detention center was always intended to be a temporary facility and expressed satisfaction at having enabled the deportation of 22,000 people since its opening, reported Infobae.
His statements come after a report from the newspaper The New York Times, which revealed that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) plans to close the center in June due to high costs, with the transfer of detainees expected to take place that month and the dismantling of the facilities in the following weeks.
DeSantis spoke to the media after a speech in Titusville and did not deny the report, although he clarified that he has not received any official notification from the federal government regarding the shutdown.
"The DHS did not have the ability to hold these illegal foreigners we were apprehending. So, because we did that with their support and reimbursement, we were able to process and deport 22,000 who otherwise would have gone back into communities in Florida," he stated.
"We didn't build any permanent site there because we knew it was going to be temporary. Now, I haven't received any official word that they won't be sending illegal foreigners there," he clarified.
DeSantis suggested that the federal plan now is to process migrants in other locations, as immigration agencies have funding that they did not have when the center opened, and confirmed that the second state center known as "Deportation Depot," located west of Jacksonville with a capacity for 2,000 detainees, will continue to operate.
In response to reports about the center's closure due to high operating costs, the Republican leader defended the spending on deportations as a matter of public safety, although he did not provide the total amount that the facility has cost the state.
According to data from the report, Florida plans to close Alligator Alcatraz while the state spends more than a million dollars daily on its operations and has requested a reimbursement of 608 million dollars from the federal government that it has yet to receive, with some private providers having gone more than 200 days without payment.
The center was inaugurated on July 1, 2025, by President Donald Trump and DeSantis at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, within the Big Cypress National Preserve in the Everglades, built in just eight days under state emergency powers.
With a designed capacity for between 3,000 and 5,000 detainees, it has never operated close to its maximum capacity: it currently houses about 1,400 migrants, of which between 700 and 800 are Cubans, and 70% of these do not have final deportation orders.
Since its opening, it has accumulated reports of inhumane conditions: overcrowding, lack of food, inadequate medical care, extreme temperatures, non-potable water, and lack of access to lawyers.
On April 2, guards beat and sprayed pepper gas at detainees during a protest over lack of access to phones, according to an affidavit from a lawyer presented in court, an incident that was reported by Cubans detained in Alligator Alcatraz.
Environmentalists and immigration activists promised not to stop their fight against the site, which they accuse of harming the Everglades ecosystem, while on May 8, DeSantis had already hinted in Lakeland at a possible closure with a phrase that summarizes his stance: "If we turn off the lights tomorrow, we can say it has fulfilled its purpose."
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