Florida “Alcatraz with Alligators” Migrant Detention Center Shut Down

Governor Ron DeSantis announced that the migrant detention center in southern Florida, nicknamed “Alcatraz with alligators,” has been closed and no longer houses any detainees. The facility was built in June 2025 in a week at an abandoned airport in the Everglades after the Trump administration opened it as part of a hard‑line immigration stance.

Human‑rights groups filed numerous lawsuits alleging that detainees were held without charges, denied access to counsel, and forced to live in overcrowded cells with extreme heat, freezing night temperatures and swarms of mosquitoes. Former detainee Louis Gonzales told the AFP the conditions were “torture,” adding that up to 30 people shared a single cell that was rarely cleaned.

Environmental organizations also sued, arguing the rapid construction threatened the fragile Everglades ecosystem and proceeded without required impact studies. A Florida judge ordered the center’s shutdown in August 2025, but the decision was delayed by an appellate court before the final closure was carried out.