Alligator Alcatraz

In a joint letter addressed to top state and federal officials overseeing "Alligator Alcatraz," the lawmakers called them out for subjecting immigrant detainees to extreme conditions and misleading lawmakers.

In a new report, the DHS' Office of Inspector General confirms what WLRN reported exclusively more than a year ago — that Alligator Alcatraz was using small cage enclosures to confine detainees for hours at a time as punishment for infractions including talking back to guards.

A report issued Friday said that inspectors making an unannounced inspection of the site near Ochopee in January found that detention center staff could not clearly identify which detention standards they used for holding detainees on immigration-related charges. There were also concerns over small metal cages used for confinement at the site.

State lawmakers received an accounting less than an hour before a budget meeting to decide whether to hand over more tax dollars.

The migrant detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz is closed, but much about it remains unresolved. One aspect of the South Florida facility has drawn far less attention, though: the name itself, and the long history of associating alligators with racist ideas about people of color.

The DeSantis administration spend spent nearly two-thirds of Florida’s emergency fund last fiscal year on fighting illegal immigration, dwarfing spending for severe weather, international rescues, and other emergency missions for which the fund was created.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in May, argued the Florida Division of Emergency Management violated the federal Clean Air Act by failing to get air quality permits for the facility.

The Miccosukee Tribe wants to be the new protector of the so-called ”Alligator Alcatraz” site, calling Friday on Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to give it the territory to conserve. But DeSantis administration still controls immigration detention center site.

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.