Federal and State Officials in Talks to Close Down Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz

Federal and state officials are in talks to close down Alligator Alcatraz in Florida.

Alligator Alcatraz is a detention center for illegal aliens, many of whom are rapists, murderers, and designated foreign terrorists.

The facility, which opened over the summer at the direction of Governor Ron DeSantis, is surrounded by Florida’s natural defenses, including alligators, pythons, and dense swampland in the Florida Everglades.

On Thursday it was reported that federal officials are working with Florida officials to close down Alligator Alcatraz.

The New York Times reported:

Florida is in talks with the Trump administration to shut down a high-profile immigration detention center that opened last summer in the Everglades and has cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars to operate, according to a federal official, a former Immigration and Customs Enforcement official, and a person close to the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The shutdown talks are preliminary, the people said. But officials at the Department of Homeland Security have concluded that it is too expensive to keep operating the center, known as Alligator Alcatraz. Homeland security officials have also come to consider the center ineffective, the federal official said. All three people spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal talks.

The DeSantis administration has been spending more than $1 million a day to run the center, which is in a swampy, isolated area between Miami and Naples. Some private vendors hired by the state to operate it have been struggling to front costs, according to the person close to the DeSantis administration.

Fox News confirmed reporting from The New York Times:

“Since its inception, Alligator Alcatraz has processed over 21,000 illegal aliens for deportation. The facility’s purpose was to provide Florida and the Trump administration with a rapid, temporary solution to four years of Biden’s open border invasion. Needless to say, Alligator Alcatraz was a massive success.

President Trump secured record funding from Congress to set up permanent sites for detaining and deporting illegal aliens. As those sites come online, the need for Alligator Alcatraz as a holding area will wane, while its 2.5-mile runway will remain available and used for large flights from neighboring ICE facilities.

We are glad to see DHS rebuilt under President Trump. We continue to fully support the mission, and when it’s no longer required, Alligator Alcatraz will return to the Everglades with Florida’s commitment that it will never be developed. We also appreciate the federal government’s commitment to reimbursing Florida for its immediate efforts to step in and help with this mission.”

NEW: As NYT reports that Feds & FL officials are in talks to close down Alligator Alcatraz, a senior FL government official provides the following statement to @FoxNews:

"Since its inception, Alligator Alcatraz has processed over 21,000 illegal aliens for deportation. The…

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) May 7, 2026

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