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Price tag to dismantle 'Alligator Alcatraz' could cost up to $20 million, court documents show

Documents reveal how much the State of Florida spent building the migration detention facility, how much it expects to spend following court order to dismantle it

WFTS

By: Jamie Ostroff

Posted

MIAMI — A top official at the Florida Department of Emergency Management estimates it will cost $15 million to $20 million to tear down the fencing and other infrastructure at the immigration detention center in the middle of the Florida Everglades known as "Alligator Alcatraz."

Florida signed more than $250M in contracts for Alligator Alcatraz

The figures appear in a declaration filed on behalf of the State of Florida as it asks a federal judge to issue a stay on last week's preliminary injunction. The ruling ordered that the facility be torn down within 60 days and no new detainees be brought in, effective immediately.

The declaration by Ian-Paul Gadea-Guidicelli, who serves as FDEM's Bureau Chief of Response and State Emergency Response Chief, also stated that rebuilding the facility would cost another $15 million to $20 million.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams issued the preliminary injunction Thursday night in an ongoing lawsuit brought by Friends of the Everglades and other environmental groups, along with the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians.

The plaintiffs claim the State of Florida, at the direction of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, built the detention facility in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federal agencies to conduct thorough preliminary assessments on the environmental impacts of any proposed actions.

Environmental groups call ruling on Alligator Alcatraz 'victory for the rule of law'

"The court has sided with us and agreed that the government has to comply with federal law and conduct an environmental impact study, halt activities so that can be done," Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, said following the judge's order. "The hope certainly is that we can choose a better course of action. It is impossible to imagine that a massive, expensive, harmful immigrant detention center in the middle of the Everglades is the best course of action."

The state argued in its defense that the federal law didn't apply to state governments. They are now appealing the injunction.

"That order will eventually cause all detention operations at the site to cease. In that event, FDEM will lose most of the value of the $218 million it invested to make TNT suitable for detention operations," Gadea- Guidicelli wrote in his declaration.

In asking Williams to pause the injunction, the state argued that keeping "Alligator Alcatraz" up and running serves the interest of public safety because the extra bedspace is required to carry out the President Donald Trump administration's directions to increase immigration enforcement.

"ICE regularly informed (Florida Highway Patrol) officers that the federal government lacked sufficient detention capacity to detain illegal aliens intercepted by FHP. In those instances, FHP was forced to let those illegal aliens go," wrote Lt. Col. Joseph Harrison, the deputy director of the Office of Executive Officer to the Colonel of FHP, in another declaration filed by the state government over the weekend.

Harrison also stated in his declaration that, "in 2025 alone, FHP apprehended in excess of 3,400 illegal aliens in Florida."

The state is asking Williams to issue the stay by 5 p.m. Monday.

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