It’s being reported by the New York Times that both federal and state officials are in discussions to close Alligator Alcatraz because it is simply to expensive to run.
The talks are said to be preliminary, but it was never meant to be a permanent facility. As the Times points out, DeSantis said it was always intended to be temporary.
Here’s the report:
Florida is in talks with the Trump administration to shut down a high-profile immigration detention center that opened last summer in the Everglades and has cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars to operate, according to a federal official, a former Immigration and Customs Enforcement official, and a person close to the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The shutdown talks are preliminary, the people said. But officials at the Department of Homeland Security have concluded that it is too expensive to keep operating the center, known as Alligator Alcatraz. Homeland security officials have also come to consider the center ineffective, the federal official said. All three people spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal talks.
The DeSantis administration has been spending more than $1 million a day to run the center, which is in a swampy, isolated area between Miami and Naples. Some private vendors hired by the state to operate it have been struggling to front costs, according to the person close to the DeSantis administration.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which operates the center, nor Mr. DeSantis’s office.
Mr. DeSantis, a Republican, has repeatedly called the Everglades detention center a success, saying it has helped the Trump administration by providing more beds to house federal detainees. He has also said that the facility was intended to be temporary.
Of course, this is the New York Times and they’d love nothing more for this facility to be closed. So don’t believe this report until it is confirmed by Governor DeSantis, DHS Secretary Mullin or President Trump.
