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One year later: How Alligator Alcatraz opened, closed and left questions unanswered

Florida's immigration detention camp in the Everglades opened July 1, 2025

WPTV, Jeremy Adkins

Alligator Alcatraz on June 26, 2026

By: Jamie Ostroff

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and last updated

OCHOPEE, Fla. — One year ago, Florida opened a detention facility in the middle of the Everglades that would become one of the most controversial immigration detention camps in the country: Alligator Alcatraz.

Before July 1, 2025, no state had ever run a detention facility exclusively for immigration detainees.

WATCH BELOW: Alligator Alcatraz opened, closed and left questions unanswered

One year later: How Alligator Alcatraz opened, closed, and left questions unanswered

President Donald Trump announced the opening of the facility alongside Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, surrounded by top officials from the Florida and federal governments. The president described the new facility as a place to house what he called the most dangerous migrants in the country.

DeSantis was eager to partner with the Trump administration on its aggressive approach to immigration enforcement.

"Our goal is to process them and be able to effectuate their return to their home country," DeSantis said at a news conference the day the new detention camp opened.

The state used emergency powers to commandeer an old landing strip belonging to Miami-Dade County, then used emergency funding and no-bid contracts — through the Florida Division of Emergency Management — to build the facility in eight days.

The day of the news conference, Trump said the Federal Emergency Management Agency would pay for Alligator Alcatraz.

Controversy from the start

The facility immediately drew scrutiny.

As the president, governor and then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem toured Alligator Alcatraz and spoke with reporters, throngs of protesters and counterprotesters gathered outside the gates.

Using ICE's own data, we uncovered that about 70% of detainees there had no criminal record — debunking government claims that only criminals would be sent there.

Immigration attorneys and detainees also raised alarms about conditions inside.

"I've practiced immigration law for over a decade. I deal with a lot of terrible situations of detainees," immigration attorney Eric Lee told us last year after his client suffered a serious illness inside Alligator Alcatraz and was eventually relocated and deported to Venezuela. "I've never experienced anything as terrible as the life-or-death situation which my client still finds himself in."

One Palm Beach County woman, who spoke on the condition that her name not be shared due to fear of retaliation by authorities, told me last summer she'd urged her husband to accept voluntary deportation because of the conditions, leaving her to care for their children in Florida.

"Because, to tell you the truth, he can't stand being in there anymore," she said.

The American Civil Liberties Union led a federal lawsuit over detainees' access to legal counsel, asserting attorneys could not show up without an appointment to meet with their clients inside Alligator Alcatraz, and that clients were unable to place unmonitored outgoing calls to their attorneys.

The state and federal government have maintained throughout the litigation that the facility met ICE standards.

Environmental concerns

Friends of the Everglades, led by Director Eve Samples, joined forces with the Miccosukee Tribe and other environmental groups to file a separate federal lawsuit, claiming the construction of Alligator Alcatraz violated the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires an environmental impact survey before any federal construction project.

"It's hard to imagine that this won't be harmful-- that this could be done in any way-- that that would not harm the Everglades," Samples told me last summer.

A district court judge last August sided with the environmental groups, issuing a preliminary injunction that ordered the state and federal governments to dismantle Alligator Alcatraz. An appeals court reversed that decision in September.

Over the course of the litigation, it became clear that if Alligator Alcatraz remained a state project, it was not required to adhere to the federal environmental law. A $608 million FEMA grant that had been approved in October was stalled, leaving Florida taxpayers to cover the costs. Most estimates put the total price tag at more than $1 billion.

DeSantis continued to reassure Florida taxpayers that the federal government would reimburse the state.

Closure and what comes next

News broke in May that Alligator Alcatraz would soon close. U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost visited the facility on May 26 and told me he saw clear signs that operations were winding down, including packed-up intake areas and a significantly smaller detainee population. The facility had detained roughly 1,500 people at a time during its peak.

On June 16, ICE confirmed to us that all detainees had been removed in preparation for hurricane season.

"We can't allow this place to shut down and then just forget about it. A billion dollars of our money, wasted here," Frost said after his visit.

DeSantis said 21,000 detainees were deported through Alligator Alcatraz.

Questions that remain unanswered

The ACLU and Friends of the Everglades lawsuits are still active.

We have been pressing FEMA for public records related to reimbursing Florida taxpayers since May. Since April, I have also been seeking records from the Florida Division of Emergency Management about a physical confrontation between detainees and guards that reportedly left multiple detainees injured.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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