Florida's 'Alligator Alcatraz' detention center is set to receive its
first group of immigrants
[July 03, 2025]
By CURT ANDERSON and MARTA LAVANDIER
OCHOPEE, Fla. (AP) — The first group of immigrants were scheduled to
arrive Wednesday night at a new detention center deep in the Florida
Everglades that officials have dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” the state's
attorney general said.
“Alligator Alcatraz will be checking in hundreds of criminal illegal
aliens tonight," Florida Republican Attorney General James Uthmeier said
on the social platform X. "Next stop: back to where they came from.”
It wasn't immediately clear precisely when the detainees would arrive or
where they were coming from. They were being brought to the facility on
buses, officials said.
The facility, at an airport used for training, will have a capacity of
about 3,000 detainees when fully operational, according to Republican
Gov. Ron DeSantis. The center was built in eight days over 10 miles (16
kilometers) of Everglades. It features more than 200 security cameras,
28,000-plus feet (8,500 meters) of barbed wire and 400 security
personnel.
Immigrants who are arrested by Florida law enforcement officers under
the federal government's 287(g) program will be taken to the facility,
according to a Trump administration official. The program is led by
Immigration and Customs Enforcement and allows police officers to
interrogate immigrants in their custody and detain them for potential
deportation.
The facility is expected to be operating with 500 to 1,000 beds within
days, according to the official, who was not authorized to speak
publicly about the details of the detention facility. It is then
supposed to be expanded in 500 bed increments until it has an estimated
5,000 beds by early July.
Environmental groups and Native American tribes have protested against
the center, contending it is a threat to the fragile Everglades system,
would be cruel to detainees because of heat and mosquitoes, and is on
land the tribes consider sacred.
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Police check cars arriving at the "Alligator Alcatraz," a new
migrant detention facility at the Dade-Collier Training and
Transition facility, Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Ochopee, Fla. (AP
Photo/Marta Lavandier)
It's also located at a place prone to frequent heavy rains, which
caused some flooding in the tents Tuesday during a visit by
President Donald Trump to mark its opening. State officials say the
complex can withstand a Category 2 hurricane, which packs winds of
between 96 and 110 mph (154 and 177 kph), and that contractors
worked overnight to shore up areas where flooding occurred.
DeSantis and other state officials say locating the facility in the
rugged and remote Florida Everglades is meant as a deterrent, and
naming it after the notorious federal prison of Alcatraz, an island
fortress known for its brutal conditions, is meant to send a
message. It’s another sign of how the Trump administration and its
allies are relying on scare tactics to try to persuade people in the
country illegally to leave voluntarily.
State and federal officials have touted the plans on social media
and conservative airwaves, sharing a meme of a compound ringed with
barbed wire and “guarded” by alligators wearing hats labeled “ICE”
for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Republican Party of
Florida has taken to fundraising off the detention center, selling
branded T-shirts and beer koozies emblazoned with the facility’s
name.
_____
Anderson reported from St. Petersburg, Florida. Associated Press
reporters Gisela Salomon in Miami and Kate Payne in Tallahassee,
Florida, contributed.
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