Vendors Begin Dismantling Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz

Last week, the Department of Homeland Security announced that all detainees were removed from Alligator Alcatraz ahead of hurricane season.

Jun 24, 2026 - 22:18

Vendors Begin Dismantling Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz

"Alligator Alcatraz" Immigrant Detention To Close — Source: Joe Raedle / Getty

While Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have been evasive about the future of Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz, it appears the facility is coming to a permanent close, as vendors received notice on Monday that they could begin dismantling the site.

The New York Times reports that state officials informed vendors on Monday that they could begin taking down tents, fences, trailers, and other key structures at Alligator Alcatraz. Crews have already begun dismantling the facility, with significant progress expected to be made by the end of the week.

Last week, ICE officials announced that all detainees had been removed from the facility. “As we enter into hurricane season, ICE and the state of Florida have moved illegal aliens from the soft-sided facility,” the department said in a statement last week. “For the safety of the illegal alien detainees, we transferred them to other facilities.”

Several advocacy groups found that reasoning odd, considering that the facility held detainees throughout last year’s hurricane season. Homeland Security officials refused to give reporters a straight answer as to whether the removal of detainees was a step toward permanently dismantling the facility.

Kevin Guthrie, Florida’s emergency management chief, whose agency operates the center, insisted that it remained open as recently as last week. “At this point in time, we have not been told to stand down, so we are still in a posture to receive detainees,” he told reporters.

Florida officials have tried to downplay the closure by telling reporters that the plan was always for Alligator Alcatraz to be a temporary facility.

“Alligator Alcatraz actually stayed open longer than it was intentionally planned,” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said at a news conference in Tampa. “It was never expected to be a long-term thing.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has made similar comments in recent weeks. “If we shut the lights out tomorrow, we will be able to say it served its purpose,” DeSantis said during a press conference earlier this month.

Alligator Alcatraz was the source of significant controversy during the brief year it was open. There have been several reports alleging inhumane conditions at the facility. Detainees told reporters and advocacy groups that wastewater covered the floors, the facility was overcrowded, poor hygiene and food accessibility, and that guards would abuse the detainees.

As a result, several lawsuits were filed over the facility due to both its inhumane conditions and environmental impact. A federal judge ordered the site to close down last August, but an appeals court placed an injunction against that order.

Beyond the abject inhumanity, there was also the issue of how expensive it was to operate the facility. CBS News estimates that the total cost to run the facility has reached up to $1.2 billion. So there was no money for USAID, Job Corps, or ACA tax subsidies, but we did have $1.2 billion to spend on a failed detention center.

I thought y’all said Trump was going to end wasteful government spending?

Jeff Brandes, a former Republican state senator who now runs the nonpartisan research group Florida Policy Project, put it plainly: “It’s been an expensive failure,” Brandes told the Times. Nobody would say this was a success.”