Alligator Alcatraz

Media reports indicated the detention site would be sold to the National Park Service.

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.

U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost visited the detention center on Tuesday. He said based on what he saw, he believes the center is winding down.

A lawsuit filed today by the Center for Biological Diversity against the Florida Division of Emergency Management targets the immigration detention center in the Everglades in eastern Collier County and cites what it terms as "substantial, unpermitted pollution from diesel generators and other air-polluting equipment that have supported the facility since operations began in June 2025."

An expected $58.2 million initial payment is a fraction of the state’s spending on the Everglades facility.

Florida’s controversial immigration detention center, known as "Alligator Alcatraz" could shut down as early as next month.

A report in the New York Times said that federal and state officials are considering closing the Everglades detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz. The Associated Press reported that Gov. DeSantis said site always was meant as "temporary."

A wildfire being identified as the Jetport fire is located near the Alligator Alcatraz detention facility in eastern Collier County.

A lawyer says guards severely beat and pepper-sprayed detainees at a state-run immigration detention center known as "Alligator Alcatraz" in the Florida Everglades. A lawyer for two of the detainees says the beating happened after they complained about not having phone access on April 2. The lawyer says the guards taunted and then attacked the detainees. Guards punched one of her clients in the face and broke another detainee's wrist. Phone service was restored the next day without explanation. The allegations are detailed in a court filing accusing officials of not complying with a judge's order to provide proper phone access for legal calls.

Environmental groups have asked a federal appellate court panel to lift its temporary halt on closing an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades. Known as "Alligator Alcatraz," the center remains open due to arguments by Florida and the Trump administration. They claimed the state hadn't gotten federal reimbursement, so it wasn't required to follow federal environmental law. On Tuesday, during a hearing in Miami, the judges questioned how much control the federal government had over the state-built facility. Florida was notified in late September of $608 million in federal funding approval. The environmental lawsuit was one of three federal challenges to the facility since it opened.