Deportation flights from 'Alligator Alcatraz' begin as Florida vows a 'surge' of immigration arrests

RNZ News

2 days ago

By
Devon M Sayers
and
Isabel Rosales
, CNN
US President President Donald Trump (2L), Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (L), and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem (R) tour the migrant detention centre, "Alligator Alcatraz," Florida, 1 July 2025.
Photo:
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP
Deportation flights from the makeshift South Florida immigration detention facility dubbed "
Alligator Alcatraz
" have begun as a "surge" of immigration arrests is on the horizon, state officials said.
"What has been done here has been remarkable," GOP Governor Ron DeSantis said on Friday (US time) at the controversial tent city the state built quickly to support the sweeping deportation agenda that helped propel President Donald Trump to a second term but is largely opposed by Americans.
"We've had two or three removal flights, and we'll continue to have those removal flights. Up to 100 individuals who were illegally present in the state of Florida have already been removed from the United States," US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Garrett J Ripa said.
It is unclear where the flights from the Everglades facility ended up.
"We now have capacity for a couple of thousand. We can expand that as demand is there," added Ripa, ICE's acting executive associate director.
Asked whether ICE is operating the flights, how many have been completed and how many people were on board, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told CNN: "Fire up the deportation planes."
The migrant detention centre, "Alligator Alcatraz," in Florida on 7 July 2025.
Photo:
Chandan Khanna / AFP
For those not flown out, conditions at the detention camp are poor, its detainees have told CNN, with over 30 people held in cells made of chain-link fencing and few bathrooms available.
One called the facility "a type of torture," while another at a news conference this week said it was being in "like a dog cage."
Detainees also have limited access to water and showers and have dealt with toilets backing up, air conditioning going out, and tents letting in rain and insects, they've told CNN.
Lawmakers who have toured the facility have given matching descriptions, and lawsuits aimed at its environmental impact and detainees' access to legal counsel have been filed.
Pushing back, a state official on Friday said the facility "meets or exceeds" the highest standards for detention.
And after "some technology issues" related to legal counsel, "we have now worked those things out," with access expected to start Monday, said Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie.
Photo:
AFP / Andrew Caballero-Reynolds
The deportation flights mark "a new day," the head of the State Board of Immigration Enforcement said: "There will be a surge of arrests, and what you see here at 'Alligator Alcatraz' and what's to follow on detention capacity will be here to meet that surge."
Florida in recent days more than doubled its capacity to arrest undocumented people, marking an intensification of immigration enforcement operations, Larry Keefe said at Friday's news conference with the governor.
The federal government has granted credentials allowing for limited immigration enforcement to over 1200 Florida deputies and more than 650 agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, along with personnel from state and local agencies, he added.
Florida leads the nation in the number of partnerships between state and local agencies and ICE under the federal 287(g) programme.
Photo:
AFP / Andrew Caballero-Reynolds
The governor on Friday lauded the deportation effort, including the flights: "Hey, this is our moment," DeSantis said.
"This is what we all campaigned on. Let's get it done."
The rallying cry, though, faces some fierce opposition.
The ACLU of Florida on Friday pushed back on Ripa's assertion, "there is not a person here (at 'Alligator Alcatraz') that is not on a final removal order."
"It is also absolutely not the case that everyone held at the facility has a final order of removal," the civil rights advocacy group's spokesperson, Keisha Mulfort, told CNN.
"We are working with attorneys and family members of people detained in the Everglades Detention Facility who have repeatedly attested to this.
"Significant due process concerns remain," too, related to detainees' access to attorneys, she said: "We will continue to challenge the unlawful and unconstitutional treatment of the people held there. Florida cannot rely on secrecy and cruelty as the foundation for its immigration policies."
Environmental groups, meanwhile, are fighting "an Everglades catastrophe unfolding before our eyes," said a spokesperson for Friends of the Everglades, which has sued in federal court over the impact construction and large numbers of people will have on the site.
Democratic state Rep. Anna Eskamani, who has toured the detention facility, demanded more answers after Friday's news conference.
"We are fighting this from every direction," she told CNN, "whether it's accountability to the environmental concerns or the humanitarian concerns or fighting on contracts and transparency and due process."
About an hour's drive by two-lane road from Trump's Miami resort, "Alligator Alcatraz" was built in just eight days by workers who remade the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport from one built to serve supersonic jets with an 11,000-foot runway and a few small buildings into a temporary tent city for housing thousands.
Security now includes 28,000 feet of fencing, nearly 300 security cameras, a "trained force of over 400 securities personnel, including additional 200 National Guard" personnel, Guthrie said on Friday, adding it is "surrounded by … I believe it is 39 square miles of natural buffer," referring to the Everglades.
As the hurricane season's peak approaches, families of those at the site are concerned about weather threats. While the facility can withstand winds of up to Category 2 strength, it must be evacuated if a stronger hurricane threatens, Guthrie has said.
"It will depend on the path of the storm," DeSantis said. "This ain't our first rodeo. We know in Florida, anything is susceptible to have to be evacuated."
Countering complaints by some detainees' relatives of scant health resources, "we have on this facility the ability of a full-fledge medical centre," Guthrie added.
"We have a medical doctor on site, we [have a] nurse practitioner on site, we have RN and complete medical staff on site."
- CNN