Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced Friday that deportation flights have begun from the controversial Everglades immigration detention facility, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” and that numbers are expected to rise significantly in the coming weeks.
Speaking near the facility, DeSantis confirmed that the Department of Homeland Security has already deported approximately 100 detainees from the site, located about 50 miles west of Miami in a remote stretch of swamp teeming with alligators and pythons.
“You’re going to see the numbers go up dramatically,” DeSantis said.
Though officials declined to disclose where the flights were headed, two or three flights have already departed the center, which currently holds around 2,000 detainees. Florida Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie noted the facility has the capacity to double in size.
The detention centre, rapidly built across 10 square miles of Everglades terrain, features over 200 security cameras, five miles of barbed wire, and a dedicated runway to facilitate quick deportations.
Governor DeSantis called on the US Justice Department to station an immigration judge on site to accelerate removal proceedings, “This was never intended to be something where people are just held,” he said. “The whole purpose is to be a place that can facilitate increased frequency and numbers of deportations.”
Critics have denounced the facility as cruel and inhumane, raising environmental and human rights concerns. Environmental groups are suing to halt further construction and have demanded access to site agreements and communications between state and federal officials.
The Biden administration has expressed approval of the site’s strategic remoteness and harsh conditions, framing it as a strong deterrent to unauthorised immigration. President Trump, under whose policies the facility was initially proposed, has floated reopening Alcatraz and has used other offshore and foreign facilities, such as Guantánamo Bay and a prison in El Salvador, to hold immigrants awaiting deportation.
Despite criticism, DeSantis and other Republican leaders continue to frame the Everglades facility as a cornerstone of their hardline immigration strategy, aligned with Trump’s broader enforcement goals.
Erizia Rubyjeana
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