“Alligator Alcatraz” Detention Center Is Officially Closing

It will always be a stain on American history

By: Austin Abbring

June 25, 2026

The temporary immigration detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” is officially closing. All of the detainees have been relocated, and roughly 21,000 people were deported through this facility. The facility will be completely dismantled in the coming weeks and cost a little over $1 billion in operating expenses while it was running. It cost Florida taxpayers and federal taxpayers around $1 million a day at its peak usage. Those taxpayers' dollars could instead have been spent on things Floridians could actually use, such as storm and emergency funds or better pay for public school teachers, but no, a vile, barbaric prison for immigrants is what the people want, and what they need. Eff school teachers and storm funds; I want a churlishly-named penitentiary for 3rd-generation grandmas and 2nd-generation hospitality workers. That’ll allow my wages to increase and the housing crisis to be resolved. 

The detention center was surrounded by controversy from the word “go”. There were countless lawsuits surrounding a lack of environmental impact research and other preemptive measures, as well as blatant human rights violations. This included, but was not limited to: 

• Sudden A/C outages in the Florida heat

• Shared common water sources

• Overflowing and nonfunctional toilets and plumbing  

• Fecal matter overflowing onto floors

• Insect infestations, including mosquito swarms

• Limited access to showers

• Spoiled and maggot-infested food

• Mold and other unsanitary conditions

• Hundreds of detainees missing from ICE databases

• Severely limited access to lawyers and counsel

• Lights were kept on constantly, with no breaks at night, which made sleep especially difficult on top of the overcrowded and contaminated conditions

This may not fall under human rights violations, but do not forget the disgusting rhetoric surrounding the facility and the abhorrent, shameless, egregious memorabilia that went along with the operation. Mind you, these are human beings who, if they are here illegally and detained, have committed a civil violation. The same way, receiving a speeding or parking ticket or jaywalking is a civil violation. I will ask you: does this facility and its conditions fit the crime? I certainly hope your answer is no. 

Especially as this immigration “crisis” is a falsehood. It is all a ruse to rile up a reactionary base of Republican voters who are easily distracted by whatever bogeyman the Conservative media conjures up to distract them while their wealth is hoarded by techno-fascists. 70% of the people ICE has detained have no criminal history, per the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). If these “violent murderers and rapists,” as President Trump describes Hispanic immigrants, were littered across our country in every nook and cranny, where are the shootouts? Where are the ICE agents getting wounded and killed in the line of duty? Where are the raids and arrests of gang members and any paraphernalia surrounding those activities? Why have there been more deportations under Obama and Biden?

It is all utter nonsense. We have a labor shortage in this country, and immigrants who are here legally and illegally are filling that gap. Immigrants, legal and undocumented, are propping up social programs that they pay taxes into but cannot receive federal benefits from. Immigrants, legal and undocumented, contribute to local, state, and federal economies and are not a net drain on our country’s resources. We must fund and increase staffing in immigration courts, reform our asylum-seeking process, and create a realistic pathway to citizenship. Not build useless, wasteful, medieval facilities such as this one to torture our fellow human beings. I have said it before, but I will say it as much as I have to. Melt ICE, Fuck ICE, abolish ICE, and abolish the DHS.