TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration filed evidence Monday that the immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz” is closed, after a federal judge required proof that the facility had really shut down.
The state offered two declarations, from state employees “intimately familiar” with the status of the facility, who said Alligator Alcatraz no longer exists. One of those testimonies included photographs of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, which showed a nearly empty airstrip absent of the hastily constructed detention center that was used to hold thousands of people.
“As is readily apparent from the images, the Facility no longer exists, and there are no detainees on site,” wrote Edward Vincent, a supervisor with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
DeSantis’ administration filed the documents as part of an ongoing lawsuit, which was first brought last year over allegations that the government violated detainees’ rights and did not provide them proper access to legal counsel. Now that there are no detainees left at the site, the state has asked the court to find the lawsuit moot.
