Florida's Alligator Alcatraz may close. Trump, DeSantis' statements about center clash with facts

Alligator Alcatraz, the controversial detention center constructed in 2025 in the Florida Everglades, could be on the verge of closing.

Officials affiliated with the center notified companies that operate it on May 12 that the facility will be shut down and deconstructed, with the remaining 1,400 detainees expected to be moved in June, The New York Times and NBC 6 reported. 

Operating costs for the facility have escalated, with Florida officials putting its total price tag at $1.1 billion by June. 

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said May 11 that federal officials haven’t told him to shut it down, but he would do so if the facility is not needed anymore. Several days later, Kevin Guthrie, Florida Division of Emergency Management executive director, told a local television station he had not heard from federal officials about a shutdown, but the first reimbursement had arrived. 

DeSantis has championed the detention center and Florida’s efforts to assist President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts. He has said the facility was intended to be temporary. The facility has been mired in lawsuits about its environmental impact and treatment of detainees.

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.

Trump: Alligator Alcatraz would hold the "most menacing" and "vicious" immigrants.

Trump, federal officials and Florida Republicans have characterized Alligator Alcatraz as a place to detain the "worst of the worst," or immigrants who were ordered for removal anyway.

"Very soon this facility will house the most menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet," Trump said when he visited the facility in July 2025.

That hasn’t been the case. Within two weeks of Alligator Alcatraz opening, reports showed that people with criminal convictions made up a small fraction of detainees.

In July 2025, of the roughly 750 people detained at Alligator Alcatraz, more than 250 had no criminal convictions or pending charges in the U.S., a Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times investigation found. One-third, or about 233 people, had criminal convictions. Some were for violent offenses such as attempted murder, while others included traffic violations and illegal reentry.

The Associated Press also reported in July 2025 that people with no criminal records or charges, including a 15-year-old boy, were being held at the center.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson previously told PolitiFact that the absence of a U.S. criminal record is "irrelevant." 

The Republican Party of Florida’s X account shared images of people it said the state was detaining at Alligator Alcatraz in what appeared to be an effort to sell merchandise. None of the people were on the list of detainees in the Herald/Times report, and the Florida GOP didn’t respond to PolitiFact’s request for information showing the people were at the facility.

DeSantis said in July 2025 that every detainee had been issued a "final removal order" and must be deported. The orders, which people typically receive after going through immigration court, are not public. But lawyers for at least 11 Alligator Alcatraz detainees told PolitiFact and other outlets their clients had no final removal orders.

DeSantis: The federal government is reimbursing state costs.

After DeSantis launched the project, he said the Department of Homeland Security’s agreement with Florida involved the agency "reimbursing" the expenses.

The federal government on May 15 reimbursed Florida $58 million for costs associated with Alligator Alcatraz.

The Trump administration approved a $608 million reimbursement for Florida’s immigration enforcement in September 2025 through a Federal Emergency Management Agency "detention support grant."(The state initially requested nearly $1.5 billion.) The federal government specified that the funds could only be used for operational costs, not construction or modification.

Records show Florida has spent at least $460 million on Alligator Alcatraz and the Deportation Depot detention center near Jacksonville. News reports said the state spent $390 million on Alligator Alcatraz in its first four months of operation and more than $1 million per day operating the center. 

However, the federal government froze the payment until March as a lawsuit proceeded that accused officials of not conducting an environmental review for the Alligator Alcatraz site, as required by the National Environmental Protection Act for federal projects. 

The hold was lifted March 10, although it’s unclear whether the review was completed.

State officials had to wait until a partial federal government shutdown ended April 30 to request the FEMA money.

"The reimbursement is approved, so that will happen," DeSantis said May 13. "FEMA doesn’t reimburse immediately. It just takes time." 

The overall price tag for Florida’s immigration enforcement efforts has continued to rise. Officials offered increasing estimates at least five times between June and November 2025, according to a Florida Phoenix review. 

DeSantis: Alligator Alcatraz has "zero" environmental impact.

DeSantis said the 39-acre facility would have "zero impact" on the Everglades. We rated that False. 

Alligator Alcatraz sits atop a remote airstrip in Big Cypress National Preserve, about six miles from the Everglades National Park border. The preserve protects over 729,000 acres of freshwater swamp ecosystem and habitat for a variety of plants and animals, including the critically endangered Florida panther.

When a jetport was proposed in the area in the 1960s, studies showed it would destroy the ecosystem. That project was never built.  

DeSantis provided no evidence showing how state agencies or officials determined that Alligator Alcatraz would have no environmental impact. The state did not conduct an environmental assessment before construction as required by law for federal projects, the basis for the federal lawsuit brought by environmental groups.

A court ruled that the facility is state run and not subject to the National Environmental Protection Act requirements.

Environmental lawyers and scientists told PolitiFact that increased human activity within a sensitive ecosystem is reason enough to be skeptical of the argument that there would be "zero" consequences. They pointed to collateral damage from greater traffic in the area; waste management complications, including spills, light and air pollution; and habitat degradation for endangered species.

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