Florida Democrats: Cut DHS funding for Alligator Alcatraz. Close it down
July 18, 2025 at 5:00 AM EDT
Florida Democrats in Congress want to close down Alligator Alcatraz by stripping more than $400 million earmarked by the Department of Homeland Security to build the controversial immigration detention center in the Everglades.
The eight Democrats said Thursday they introduced the “No Cages in the Everglades Act” to defund DHS’s “lawless, inhumane immigration detention site within South Florida’s ecologically sensitive tribal lands.”
Signing on as sponsors: U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, along with Democratic Florida Reps. Kathy Castor, of Tampa, Frederica Wilson, of Miami Gardens, Lois Frankel, of Boca Raton, Darren Soto, of Orlando, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, of Miramar, Maxwell Frost, of Orlando, and Jared Moskowitz of Parkland. Read the full text of the bill here.
The bill faces long odds of passage in the House, where Republicans hold a 220-212 majority. Three vacancies were held by Democrats.
READ MORE: Congressional, state lawmakers tour Alligator Alcatraz. See men in cages. Hear pleas of 'Libertad'
“[President Donald] Trump and [Gov.] Ron DeSantis have exploited legal ambiguity around this Everglades internment camp to avoid any scrutiny of abuses there,” said Wasserman Schultz. “Our bill would shut down this atrocity, strengthen oversight of detention facilities nationwide, and mandate public reporting on costs, conditions, and the treatment of detainees at this detention site, as well as report on any harms to the environment and nearby tribal lands,” she said in a statement. “The public deserves the full truth about what’s happening in and around this facility and they deserve accountability for any laws broken.”
“The reports coming out of Trump’s so-called ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ are deeply disturbing,” said Frankel, referring to the name state officials labeled the detention facility. “Detained immigrants—many of whom have no criminal record—are being denied water, medicine, legal counsel, and other basic human rights.”
“This bill puts a stop to the madness,” Frankel said.
“No one should be subjected to unsafe, degrading treatment, and we cannot meet these injustices with silence or symbolic gestures,” said Cherfilus-McCormick.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, in an interview Thursday on Newsmax, the conservative cable TV network, said the detention center "meet and exceed the federal standards that DHS uses for these types of operations."
"When you're brought into Alligator Alcatraz as an illegal alien, the first thing that they do — DHS offers you an ability to take a flight back to your home country at federal expense," said DeSantis. "So nobody actually has to go to Alligator Alcatraz."
"The illegals are given the right to simply self-deport — not even at their expense," he said. "That is the first thing that happens there. You don't hear a lot about that."
"Obviously, the detainees or the illegals that end up inside the processing center, they have rejected that offer to go back to their home country," he added.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has said the construction of the immigration detention center, which opened earlier this month, is being funded in large part by the Shelter and Services Program within the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, which is best known for responding to hurricanes and other natural disasters.
Managing the facility “via a team of vendors” will cost $245 a bed per day or approximately $450 million a year, a U.S. official said. The expenses will be incurred by Florida and reimbursed by FEMA, which has a $625 million shelter and service program fund.
The eight Democrats said Thursday they introduced the “No Cages in the Everglades Act” to defund DHS’s “lawless, inhumane immigration detention site within South Florida’s ecologically sensitive tribal lands.”
Signing on as sponsors: U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, along with Democratic Florida Reps. Kathy Castor, of Tampa, Frederica Wilson, of Miami Gardens, Lois Frankel, of Boca Raton, Darren Soto, of Orlando, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, of Miramar, Maxwell Frost, of Orlando, and Jared Moskowitz of Parkland. Read the full text of the bill here.
The bill faces long odds of passage in the House, where Republicans hold a 220-212 majority. Three vacancies were held by Democrats.
READ MORE: Congressional, state lawmakers tour Alligator Alcatraz. See men in cages. Hear pleas of 'Libertad'
“[President Donald] Trump and [Gov.] Ron DeSantis have exploited legal ambiguity around this Everglades internment camp to avoid any scrutiny of abuses there,” said Wasserman Schultz. “Our bill would shut down this atrocity, strengthen oversight of detention facilities nationwide, and mandate public reporting on costs, conditions, and the treatment of detainees at this detention site, as well as report on any harms to the environment and nearby tribal lands,” she said in a statement. “The public deserves the full truth about what’s happening in and around this facility and they deserve accountability for any laws broken.”
“The reports coming out of Trump’s so-called ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ are deeply disturbing,” said Frankel, referring to the name state officials labeled the detention facility. “Detained immigrants—many of whom have no criminal record—are being denied water, medicine, legal counsel, and other basic human rights.”
“This bill puts a stop to the madness,” Frankel said.
“No one should be subjected to unsafe, degrading treatment, and we cannot meet these injustices with silence or symbolic gestures,” said Cherfilus-McCormick.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, in an interview Thursday on Newsmax, the conservative cable TV network, said the detention center "meet and exceed the federal standards that DHS uses for these types of operations."
"When you're brought into Alligator Alcatraz as an illegal alien, the first thing that they do — DHS offers you an ability to take a flight back to your home country at federal expense," said DeSantis. "So nobody actually has to go to Alligator Alcatraz."
"The illegals are given the right to simply self-deport — not even at their expense," he said. "That is the first thing that happens there. You don't hear a lot about that."
"Obviously, the detainees or the illegals that end up inside the processing center, they have rejected that offer to go back to their home country," he added.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has said the construction of the immigration detention center, which opened earlier this month, is being funded in large part by the Shelter and Services Program within the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, which is best known for responding to hurricanes and other natural disasters.
Managing the facility “via a team of vendors” will cost $245 a bed per day or approximately $450 million a year, a U.S. official said. The expenses will be incurred by Florida and reimbursed by FEMA, which has a $625 million shelter and service program fund.