Florida Spent $245 Million on the Now-Closed Facility
August 29, 2025—One of the most notorious migrant detention centers in the United States, located in the Florida Everglades, is closing over environmental concerns.
The mass detention center, known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” is the center of multiple lawsuits and widespread controversy due to its inhumane conditions and location. The roughly 336 detainees who had been held there have reportedly been moved.
In June, President Donald Trump dubbed the massive facility “Alligator Alcatraz” because the surrounding swamp is “not a place I want to go hiking anytime soon.”
“We’re surrounded by miles of treacherous swampland, and the only way out is really deportation,” Trump said in June at the announced opening.
Deplorable Conditions
The detention center is known for its deplorable conditions.
In July, the Associated Press reported on its large cells, described as “zoo cages,” containing rows of bunk beds, wastewater on the floor, rampant mosquitoes, and worms in the food.
It appears the Trump administration used the inhumane conditions as a means to incentivize detainees to forgo their legal rights and self-deport.
A Vicious Center for Innocent Detainees
Detainees started arriving July 2. Attorneys for detainees told the Associated Press that many held in the facility have no criminal records. At least one detainee was a teenage boy. Detainees were cut off from the U.S. legal system, according to immigration attorneys.
What’s ironic is that in June, Trump said the center would house “the most menacing and vicious migrants.” In fact, the facility held hundreds of innocent people there without charge. Reports in the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times indicated the holding facility jailed at least 250 people with no criminal record other than civil immigration violations. Furthermore, The Guardian reported that at least one detainee was a U.S. citizen who had shouted out for help to Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost while the lawmaker visited the facility.
Background: A 5,000-Capacity Holding Camp
In June, the federal and state governments started building the set of mass migrant detention and deportation camps, which combined would have a capacity to hold 5,000 people. Trump funded the camps with $218 million of money for FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency in charge of natural disasters. The Florida government had signed deals with vendors for the facilities worth $405 million, according to the Associated Press. About half of those funds, roughly $245 million, had been allocated by late July.
Ruling last week: Sensitive Wetlands
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams ordered the state of Florida and the federal government to close the detention center within 60 days.
The case dealt not with legal issues of holding of detainees—many of them taken without charge—but on the grounds of an improper venue challenge.
This week, the judge upheld her order, denying the federal government’s request. The facility is the center of at least two other lawsuits filed by civil rights groups. The lack of due process rights is a key concern.
Plaintiffs: Friends of the Everglades, Center for Biological Diversity, and the Miccosukee Tribe. Defendants: Kevin Guthrie, director of Florida’s Department of Emergency Management, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Todd Lyons.
Rep. Frost of Florida, who visited the center in July, lauded the court’s decision, saying it was a “state-sponsored, government-funded internment camp designed to keep Black and Brown immigrants in hellish conditions.”
“This ruling is a step forward, but the struggle for justice continues. I won’t stop fighting,” Frost said.
Environmental, Not Human Rights, Concerns
Plaintiffs made the case that the facility harmed the ecosystem of Big Cypress National Preserve. Furthermore, the case held that the Miccosukee Tribe has occupancy rights to the preserve.
Citing evidence of 20 acres of pavement, high-intensity lighting, and miles of new fencing, the case argued it would pose a threat to endangered species such as Florida panthers and wood storks, harm clean water, and damage Everglades wetlands. They held that the government violated the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires a review process, and the Administrative Procedure Act.
“This decision sends a clear message that environmental laws must be respected by leaders at the highest levels of our government — and there are consequences for ignoring them,” said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades.
