Florida Closes ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ After a Year, as DeSantis Boasts of 21,000 Deportations

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on June 25 that “Alligator Alcatraz” — the state-run immigration detention camp built on an isolated Everglades airstrip — has closed, days after the federal government said all detainees had been transferred out. DeSantis cast the shutdown as a success, boasting of deporting 21,000 people and saying the camp was always meant to be temporary until more permanent detention capacity came online. The facility, which cost state taxpayers an estimated $1.2 million a day, became a national byword for the cruelty and expense of the administration’s mass-deportation buildout during its roughly one year of operation.