Alligator Alcatraz — South Florida Detention Facility (Dade-Collier) · FL · 3,000-5,000 · Florida Division of Emergency Management

Overview

The South Florida Detention Facility, universally known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” is an immigration detention facility built in eight days in June 2025 on a remote airfield deep in the Florida Everglades. Located at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport inside Big Cypress National Preserve, it spans Miami-Dade and Collier counties.

CLOSING (June 2026)

The week of May 26, 2026 the facility moved from a gradual wind-down to a confirmed shutdown. Companies operating the site were formally notified May 26 it is closing; state officials told vendors the last detainee will leave in June 2026, followed by a 2-3 week “demobilization” (removing fencing, trailers, and structures), after which the location reopens as a small pilot-training airport. Population fell from ~1,500 (April) to 655 (Frost oversight visit May 26; WFLX May 29), though closure reporting references “the remaining ~1,400” to be cleared. Detainees are transferred, not released — in-state (Baker, Krome, BTC, Glades) and out-of-state (California City, CA; Fort Bliss, TX per ACLU, May 29). Total operating cost now estimated near $1 billion; DeSantis says it was “always meant to be temporary.” See the county-fight entry fl-miami-dade-alligator-alcatraz for the full timeline and litigation status. Note: the proposed third Florida facility, “Panhandle Pokey” (Panama City), was abandoned — DHS said May 22, 2026 it is “no longer being proposed.”

Key Details

Opened: July 1, 2025 (Trump and DeSantis attended opening)
Built in: 8 days
Capacity: 3,000 initial; designed for up to 5,000
Operating cost: ~$450 million/year; daily burn rate reached $3 million/day in early weeks
Federal reimbursement promised: $608 million
Security: 200+ cameras, 28,000+ feet of barbed wire, 400 security personnel
Operator: Florida Division of Emergency Management

Conditions

Detainees have described harrowing conditions:

People crammed into cages
Denied access to potable water
Meals infested with maggots
Swarmed by oversized mosquitoes
The camp has been labeled a “black hole” due to irregular disappearance of detainees

Legal Challenges

Federal Judge Kathleen Williams issued a preliminary injunction halting expansion and ordering wind-down
Appeals court temporarily blocked the judge’s order, allowing continued operations
Multiple environmental suits challenging construction in Big Cypress National Preserve
Human rights organizations have issued formal condemnations

Significance

Alligator Alcatraz represents the state-operated detention model (see also camp-blanding-fl) — Florida building and running facilities under a DeSantis-Trump partnership, bypassing federal procurement and oversight systems. It is the most symbolically potent facility in the entire detention expansion, combining environmental destruction, documented abuse, legal black holes, and political spectacle (Trump toured the facility).

Detention Pipeline

Alligator Alcatraz — South Florida Detention Facility (Dade-Collier)