Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, acknowledged that the Alligator Alcatraz immigrant detention center will stop operating and will be dismantled in the coming weeks.

The facilities set up with the objective of keeping deprived of freedom to aliens lacking legal status in the United States opened their doors s in July 2025, this after a visit by President Donald Trump to the Everglades, a natural site surrounded by swamps, alligators and other reptiles.

Since then, Alligator Alcatraz has not stopped been the subject of criticism initially from environmentalists pointing out alleged damage to the natural ecosystem of the site.

However, the strongest negative comments came from human rights organizations, pointing out that detained immigrants were receiving inhumane treatment.

During a speech broadcast in the city of Titusville, Ron DeSantis expressed that the project to keep in shelter foreigners lacking legal status detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) was always conceived as something temporary.

“We didn't build any permanent site there because we knew it was going to be temporary. Now, I haven't received any official word that they're not going to send illegal foreigners there,” he mentioned.

The Republican whose mandate is in the final stretch praised that in 10 months of operating in Alligator Alcatraz a record number of deportations.

“DHS didn't have the ability to hold these illegal aliens that we were apprehending. So, why did we do that with their support and its reimbursement, we were able to process and deport 22,000 who, otherwise, would have departed again to Florida communities,” he stressed.

However, the controversial point for the Florida government is that it did not receive a dollar of the $608 million spent so far to keep the detention center located in the heart of the Everglades wetland, an ecological reserve in southern Florida.

Pending an official notice, it is projected that, over the coming weeks, detained immigrants will be moved to other facilities and gradually activity at Alligator Alcatraz will decrease until it closes permanently.