On June 24, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced the closure of the Alligator Alcatraz, a detention center for undocumented immigrants. The facility operated for less than a year, almost always amid controversy. A day later, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava requested that the land be transferred to the national park system.
In announcing the closure, DeSantis defended the initiative. “There is no doubt that this mission has made the state of Florida safer; to date, this facility has led to nearly 21,000 deportations of people who, for the most part, would have been released back into Florida society if this facility did not exist,” he said.
He added that the closure is due to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) having sufficient resources to manage detentions without relying on this temporary facility. Although some transfers were initially linked to the start of hurricane season, he indicated that the decision is part of the end of operations at the complex.
The South Florida Detention Center, located in the Everglades, had received strong criticism from lawyers, detainees’ families, and human rights organizations for its living conditions and the treatment of detainees.
After learning of the definitive closure of Alligator Alcatraz, Mayor Levine Cava said she wanted the airport and the 17,000 hectares of wetlands surrounding it to be transferred to the National Park Service (NPS), which manages the Big Cypress National Reserve, which surrounds the Alcatraz site and is part of the Everglades.
According to a Miami Herald article, in a memo, Levine Cava states: “The eventual closure and dismantling of the Alligator Alcatraz facility would represent a historic opportunity to permanently protect this land and contribute significantly to one of the nation’s most ambitious environmental restoration efforts.”
This is a proposal that a DeSantis supporter made to Levine Cava several years ago, though it never progressed beyond preliminary discussions. While the memo doesn’t mention the value of the extensive land surrounding the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, it could be worth around $200 million.
In any case, Levine Cava clarified that Miami-Dade cannot sell the airport or the surrounding land to the National Park Service because the federal agency would only accept a donation. Federal regulations regarding aviation-related property also prevent Miami-Dade from donating the property.
Therefore, Miami-Dade needs a buyer for the land, who would then have to donate it to the NPS. Before the state seized the property to build Alligator Alcatraz, the mayor said the government itself would be the best buyer. In 2020, negotiations took place for Florida to purchase the land, keep the airport as a depot and training center, and donate the rest to the Big Cypress Wildlife Reserve.
The complex was built in record time in an area surrounded by swamps inhabited by alligators, a feature that gave rise to the nickname Alligator Alcatraz. President Donald Trump visited the site on July 1, 2025, just two days before its opening.
