Alligator Alcatraz

Despite Governor Ron DeSantis’ recent announcement of the remote Florida detention center shutting down, environmental groups say they plan to continue to fight the case.

The Workers Circle, a secular Jewish group that led Freedom Vigils for more than 40 weeks outside Alligator Alcatraz, rejoiced in the announcement by Gov. Ron DeSantis that the controversial immigration detention center in the Everglades was being closed.

DeSantis said Thursday that about 21,000 people were deported through the center. Federal officials say they no longer need the extra capacity to handle detention and deportation because they have more permanent facilities. I

Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said in a memo the detention center is "fundamentally inconsistent" with the county's environmental stewardship. At a press conference, Gov. Ron DeSantis said he would not support the plan.

Despite news that the last detainee is gone from the immigration detention facility known as Alligator Alcatraz, the environmental groups that sued to shut it down gathered online Wednesday to make it known that they are nowhere near done

DHS officials did not say how many detainees were transferred or where they were taken. Nor did it say whether the facility would close permanently or only temporarily.

They have come from various churches and faith traditions in South Florida to hold "Freedom vigils" for nearly a year to pray and demonstrate against what they say are inhumane conditions inside the immigrant detention center.

The Trump administration has paid Florida $58 million for operating “Alligator Alcatraz,” the first of promised federal reimbursements set to flow into the state.

Following a state-approved visit Tuesday to Alligator Alcatraz, U.S. Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, a Democrat from Orlando, said he wants state and federal officials to disclose where remaining immigrant detainees are being transferred amid reported plans to permanently close the detention facility.

With the facility’s future in flux, PolitiFact rounded up fact-checks of statements by DeSantis and Trump that miscast its detainees, environmental effects and funding.

It’s the first installment of the $608 million FEMA grant Florida’s been waiting for since the detention center opened last summer.

Environmental groups say the expected closure of a detention center in the Florida Everglades is linked to their lawsuit. The center, nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz," could close in the next month or two. A federal appellate court recently allowed it to remain open but sent the case back to a lower court.