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(NewsNation) — The Florida-funded and operated migrant detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz” is one step closer to closing permanently, signaling the end of a costly $1.2 billion project just weeks ahead of the one-year anniversary of the facility’s opening.
Contractors who were hired to oversee operations of the detention center received word to begin “full demobilization” of the facility, CBS News Miami reported Monday, citing four sources. The New York Times, which had previously reported that contractors had been notified that the detention center would be closing this summer, reported Tuesday that Florida emergency management officials instructed contractors to begin dismantling the site and to make “significant progress” by Wednesday.
‘Alligator Alcatraz’ detention center evacuated
The order comes less than a week after detainees who were being held at the facility were evaluated and moved to other locations, with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials citing safety precautions as Florida enters hurricane season.
An attorney representing environmental groups suing the DeSantis and Trump administrations over the facility told NewsNation last week that lighting, fencing and tenting remained in place after the detention center was evacuated.
He said Monday that it appeared workers were being brought in over the weekend to begin deconstructing the site.
A spokesperson for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) directed NewsNation to the Florida Division of Emergency Management for comment Monday. The agency has been responsible for operating the tent facility since it opened in July 2025.
A spokesperson for FDEM did not respond to a request to confirm the CBS report and did not respond to multiple messages last week about the facility’s future.
President Donald Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and others, tour “Alligator Alcatraz,” a new migrant detention facility at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility, Tuesday, July 1, 2025, in Ochopee, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (R) said Monday that he is “not the proper official to confirm” the CBS report but confirmed that the number of detainees being sent to the facility was dropping in recent months.
“I think Alligator Alcatraz actually stayed open longer than it was intentionally planned when it was first conceptualized,” he told reporters, adding the facility was never meant to be a long-term project.
“Now that the federal government is resourced and standing up its own mission, using its own authorities, [the Florida site] is no longer needed,” Uthmeier continued. “The plan was always to protect the Everglades and take it back (to being a) protected area.”
Removing infrastructure at the site could take weeks: Report
The CBS News Miami report indicated that fully removing the infrastructure at the site could take weeks before it could be used again as an airstrip for training pilots at Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport.
Paul Schwiep, the attorney representing the environmental groups, said that ICE’s explanation of why detainees were moved does not make sense. He cites the fact that the detention center was constructed during last year’s hurricane season, when the first group of detainees was moved into the facility.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is seen before a roundtable discussion on college sports in the East Room of the White House, Friday, March 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
At the time, Kevin Guthrie, Florida’s head of emergency management, said the facility could withstand hurricane winds of up to Category 2, or up to 110 mph. CBS News reported Monday that Guthrie spoke with contractors via phone Monday, saying he expected “significant progress” to be made in clearing the site by Wednesday.
Guthrie said last week that Florida emergency management officials had not been instructed to stand down and that the facility was “still in a posture to receive detainees, The Miami Herald reported.
Schwiep called last week’s removal of detainees “welcome news,” citing the lack of power and a working sewage system, which he said makes the site of the facility inhospitable. But he does not consider this week’s apparent site evacuation true evidence that their pending legal action against the Trump and DeSantis administrations is over.
“The goal is not to have (DHS and Florida officials) waive a white flag and declare that they’ve been defeated,” Schwiep told NewsNation. “The goal is to have them do what the governor said they’d do from the outset: Use (the land) temporarily, and that’s apparently run its course now and return the site to the condition it was in before they began to use it for this purpose.”
Feds reimbursed Florida for the money spent
Florida has been reimbursed by the federal government for the money spent on building and operating the detention center, but DeSantis said the system was designed for DHS to oversee federal immigration enforcement, including detaining migrants.
In May, Florida received $58.2 million in reimbursement funds from the federal government, the first installment of a promised total of $608 million to oversee the facility.
Last week, DeSantis did not confirm that the facility would be closing but said that in less than a year, the presence of the facility has improved public safety by housing criminal migrants who otherwise would have been released into Florida communities.
The site, which is reportedly costing Florida taxpayers more than $1.2 million per day to operate, has housed up to 25,000 detainees since its opening, the governor said. He added that the detention center, which is located “in the middle of nowhere” and in “the most secure place you could do this,” has served a “huge, huge” purpose while it lasted.
The facility was constructed in less than a week, and Department of Homeland Security officials said at the time that they hoped to use the detention center as a blueprint for other states.
A DHS spokesperson referred NewsNation’s questions about the vendor notification to the state on Monday and resent a previously released statement about detainees being moved for safety.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin previously said in a television interview that there were no near-term plans to close the facility.
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