High operational cost cited for Alligator Alcatraz's closing in June
Florida will soon close Alligator Alcatraz, a highly publicized immigration detention center that opened in the Everglades less than a year ago, according to multiple news reports citing unidentified officials.
Companies hired to run the detention center were told May 12 that the facility would be shut down in June, the New York Times and CBS News reported.
The cost of operating the center is the reason. Documents obtained in March by the Naples Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Network, indicated $1 million per day was spent on Alligator Alcatraz.
Florida State Rep. Anna Eskamani, an Orlando Democrat, told the Naples Daily News and Fort Myers News-Press on May 12 that she received a text from a member of Congress that said the center was closing.
The 1,400 people held in the center will be removed in the next few weeks. It is not yet known where they will be moved.
Alligator Alcatraz was built in eight days, and then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said it would serve as a blueprint for similar sites elsewhere. Florida opened a second site at the Baker Correctional Institution, dubbed the "Deportation Depot."
USA TODAY reviewed the construction, cost, size and capacity of Alligator Alcatraz, as well as the political and environmental objections to it. Here is what we found.
Where is Alligator Alcatraz located?
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The compound is located on 39 square miles at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, an airfield with a single 10,500-foot runway in Ochopee, Florida, in Collier County, USA TODAY reported.
It's located in Big Cypress National Preserve, next to the Everglades National Park, and is about 75 miles west of Miami.
Why do they call it 'Alligator Alcatraz'?
Florida officials have called the detention center Alligator Alcatraz, though its official name is still the South Florida Detention Facility. It's meant as a connection to the infamous Alcatraz maximum-security prison in San Francisco Bay and the fact that Florida has 1.3 million alligators.
It also has Burmese pythons.
In a video introducing Alligator Alcatraz, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said, "You don't need to invest that much in the perimeter. People get out, there's not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons."
However, people do live nearby, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. There are 15 remaining traditional Miccosukee and Seminole villages in Big Cypress. There are also several ceremonial grounds, burial grounds and gathering sites within the preserve.
The detention center is a 20-minute drive from the Miccosukee reservation and less than 100 yards away from a village of the Panther Clan of the Seminole Tribe of Florida.
How many inmates can it hold?
The detention center was designed to hold 3,000 people, with plans for eventual expansion to a total capacity of 5,000.
At least 70 members of the Florida National Guard have been assigned to the detention center.
How was Alligator Alcatraz built?
It took eight days to build the facility, which has a series of bunk beds inside wire fence enclosures inside Federal Emergency Management Agency-type canvas tents.
Who operates Alligator Alcatraz?
The site is owned by Miami-Dade County and had been operated by the Miami-Dade Aviation Department. For a time, it was used for flight training. However, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis used emergency powers to take control of the airport in June 2025.
The governor's office said state officials offered to buy the lot from Miami-Dade County, but Mayor Daniella Levine Cava responded with an "unreasonable" request of $190 million.
While the state of Florida was to operate the center, its facilities were to be largely funded by FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program, said Noem, who was DHS secretary when the center opened.
What is the political opposition?
Environmentalists and other activists who have aggressively fought to shut down Alligator Alcatraz cheered the news that it could finally happen, the Naples Daily News reported.
Leaders of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and the Seminole Tribe of Florida criticized the detention center's construction.
The Seminole Tribe, the largest federally recognized tribe in Florida, opposed the detention center as a threat to sacred lands.
Leaders say it will affect the environment of indigenous homelands and nearby villages, where tribal members live, hunt, fish, gather and pray.
CONTRIBUTING Cindi Andrews, Ana Goni-Lessan, Cheryl McCloud, C.A.Bridges, J. Kyle Foster, Mickenzie Hannon, Naples Daily News and Fort Myers News-Press; Melina Khan, Chad Gillis, USA TODAY
SOURCE USA TODAY Network reporting and research; Reuters; National Park Service; Everglades Foundation