'People are there': First immigration detainees arrive at 'Alligator Alcatraz' in the Everglades
By Associated Press
July 3, 2025 at 6:13 AM EDT
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said on social media that “hundreds” of immigration detainees were to arrive at the center. A spokesman for Uthmeier confirmed that the facility is occupied.
The first group of immigrants has arrived at a new detention center deep in the Everglades that officials have dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” a spokesperson for state Attorney General James Uthmeier said.
“People are there,” press secretary Jae Williams told the Associated Press, though he didn't immediately provide further details on the number of detainees or when they arrived.
“Next stop: back to where they came from,” Uthmeier said on the X social media platform Wednesday. He’s been credited as the architect behind the Everglades proposal.
Also on X, the Florida Division of Emergency Management posted, "The first group has arrived at Alligator Alcatraz."
https://twitter.com/FLSERT/status/1940800991340970006
Requests for additional information from the office of Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Emergency Management agency, which is building the site, were not returned early Thursday afternoon.
The facility, at an airport used for training, will have an initial capacity of about 3,000 detainees, DeSantis said. The center was built in eight days and features more than 200 security cameras, 28,000-plus fee 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 an official in President Donald Trump's administration. 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.
ALSO READ: Florida Democratic legislators denied entry to 'Alligator Alcatraz' and vow: 'We will be back'
The facility is expected to be expanded in 500-bed increments until it has an estimated 5,000 beds by early July.
A group of Florida Democratic state lawmakers headed to the facility Thursday to conduct “an official legislative site visit,” citing concerns about conditions for detainees and the awarding of millions of dollars in state contracts for the construction.
“As lawmakers, we have both the legal right and moral responsibility to inspect this site, demand answers, and expose this abuse before it becomes the national blueprint,” the legislators said in a joint statement ahead of the visit.
Federal agencies signaled their opposition Thursday to a lawsuit brought by environmental groups seeking to halt operations at the detention center. Though Trump applauded the center during an official tour this week, the filing on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security seemed to try to distance his administration from the facility, and said no federal money to date has been spent on it.
ALSO READ: DOJ pushes back against environmental legal challenge to 'Alligator Alcatraz'
“DHS has not implemented, authorized, directed, or funded Florida’s temporary detention center. Florida is constructing and operating the facility using state funds on state lands under state emergency authority and a preexisting general delegation of federal authority to implement immigration functions,” the U.S. filing says.
Human rights advocates and Native American tribes have also 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.
It’s also located at a place prone to frequent heavy rains, which caused some flooding in the tents Tuesday during the visit by 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, and that contractors worked overnight to shore up areas where flooding occurred.
According to images shared with the AP, overnight Wednesday, workers put up new signs labeled “Alligator Alcatraz” along the sole highway leading to the site and outside the entrance of the airfield that has been known as the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport. State officials seized the county-owned land where the facility is located using emergency powers authorized by an executive order issued by the governor.
DeSantis and other state officials say locating the facility in the rugged and remote 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.” 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.
“People are there,” press secretary Jae Williams told the Associated Press, though he didn't immediately provide further details on the number of detainees or when they arrived.
“Next stop: back to where they came from,” Uthmeier said on the X social media platform Wednesday. He’s been credited as the architect behind the Everglades proposal.
Also on X, the Florida Division of Emergency Management posted, "The first group has arrived at Alligator Alcatraz."
https://twitter.com/FLSERT/status/1940800991340970006
Requests for additional information from the office of Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Emergency Management agency, which is building the site, were not returned early Thursday afternoon.
The facility, at an airport used for training, will have an initial capacity of about 3,000 detainees, DeSantis said. The center was built in eight days and features more than 200 security cameras, 28,000-plus fee 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 an official in President Donald Trump's administration. 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.
ALSO READ: Florida Democratic legislators denied entry to 'Alligator Alcatraz' and vow: 'We will be back'
The facility is expected to be expanded in 500-bed increments until it has an estimated 5,000 beds by early July.
A group of Florida Democratic state lawmakers headed to the facility Thursday to conduct “an official legislative site visit,” citing concerns about conditions for detainees and the awarding of millions of dollars in state contracts for the construction.
“As lawmakers, we have both the legal right and moral responsibility to inspect this site, demand answers, and expose this abuse before it becomes the national blueprint,” the legislators said in a joint statement ahead of the visit.
Federal agencies signaled their opposition Thursday to a lawsuit brought by environmental groups seeking to halt operations at the detention center. Though Trump applauded the center during an official tour this week, the filing on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security seemed to try to distance his administration from the facility, and said no federal money to date has been spent on it.
ALSO READ: DOJ pushes back against environmental legal challenge to 'Alligator Alcatraz'
“DHS has not implemented, authorized, directed, or funded Florida’s temporary detention center. Florida is constructing and operating the facility using state funds on state lands under state emergency authority and a preexisting general delegation of federal authority to implement immigration functions,” the U.S. filing says.
Human rights advocates and Native American tribes have also 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.
It’s also located at a place prone to frequent heavy rains, which caused some flooding in the tents Tuesday during the visit by 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, and that contractors worked overnight to shore up areas where flooding occurred.
According to images shared with the AP, overnight Wednesday, workers put up new signs labeled “Alligator Alcatraz” along the sole highway leading to the site and outside the entrance of the airfield that has been known as the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport. State officials seized the county-owned land where the facility is located using emergency powers authorized by an executive order issued by the governor.
DeSantis and other state officials say locating the facility in the rugged and remote 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.” 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.