Deportation flights begin from Alligator Alcatraz in Florida
July 25 (UPI) -- Deportation flights from the so-called Alligator Alcatraz in southern Florida have begun, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday.
At a news conference at the site in the Everglades, DeSantis said "hundreds" of detainees there had been processed for deportation," and were headed to other states or straight to their home country.
Garrett Ripa, a top ICE official, confirmed "two or three" flights took off from runway at the detention center. The first one had 100 passengers.
DeSantis said a "couple dozen" people had self-deported under a pilot program, which provides a $1,000 stipend and a plane ticket to fly to their home country.
Governor DeSantis Speaks from Alligator Alcatraz https://t.co/AJeIVThH7O— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) July 25, 2025
The makeshift detention facility of trailers or tents was built in less than one month near a rarely used 2-mile runway.
"The flights are going, I think the cadence is going to increase, I think you're going to see the numbers really go up dramatically," DeSantis told reporters.
The airstrip can accommodate private and commercial aircraft at night and during the day, DeSantis said.
"I don't want it to be where illegals are just stored there, and then just kind of sitting. I want it to be where illegals are here, there's an aggressive processing and an aggressive deportation schedule."
Alligator Alcatraz now can accommodate 2,000 detainees with plans to boost beds to 4,000. The first ones arrived July 3, two days after President Donald Trump toured the area.
DeSantis, a Republican, has aided the Trump administration in cracking down on illegal immigration. The state government will be reimbursed $245 million by the federal government, ABC News reported. Some money will come from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The yearly cost is $450 million, and the complex is being run by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the federal government for alleged violations of the detainees' rights.
"The U.S. Constitution does not allow the government to simply lock people away without any ability to communicate with counsel or to petition the court for release from custody," Eunice Cho, senior counsel with the ACLU's National Prison Project and the lead lawyer in the case, said in a statement.
Immigration raids are rising in Florida with double the state manpower.
Larry Keefe, the executive director for Florida's Board of Immigration and Enforcement, said 1,800 Florida troops have been deputized, and the Trump administration has issued "credentials" to 12,000 sheriff's deputies and 650 state agents.
State law enforcement must cooperate with federal immigration authorities under Florida law.
Detainees have reported poor conditions in hot weather with unsanitary food with maggots, poor sanitation, no showers, no access to lawyers and denial of religious rights, WFOR-TV reported. Nearby are dangerous wildlife, including alligators and snakes in the swamp.
A senior DeSantis administration official told The Miami Herald on Friday that on-site legal representation should be available by Monday.
Democrats, including some who have toured the facility, want it closed.
Demonstrators have protested the facility, including activists, indigenous groups and immigration advocates .
They have gone to the edge of the Tamiami Trail, on the border between Collier County and Miami-Dade County. Alligator Alley, which is part of Interstate 75, runs 80 miles across the state through the Everglades.
Officials have defended the conditions.
"Our detention centers at the federal level are held to a higher standard than most local or state centers and even federal prisons," Homeland Security Secretary Krisi Noem said on July 13. "The standards are extremely high."
When asked about the prospects of a hurricane striking, DeSantis said "this ain't our first rodeo."
The airstrip was envisioned to become an airport with construction to begin in 1968. Work was halted in 1970 because of environmental concerns, but not before one runway was finished.
The land later became Big Cyprus National Preserve, which encompasses 1,139 square miles. The preserve, which also includes swamp, is north of Everglades National Park, which covers 2,356 square miles.
DeSantis seized the land, which belongs to Miami-Dade County, under emergency powers.
Alligator Alcatraz: the one-stop shop to carry out President Trump's mass deportation agenda. pic.twitter.com/96um2IXE7U— Attorney General James Uthmeier (@AGJamesUthmeier) June 19, 2025
The Trump administration also is looking at creating other similar centers, including Texas, Mississippi and South Carolina. Indiana's Camp Atterbury and New Jersey's Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst will be turned into temporary migrant detention centers, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week.
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