Deportation Flights From Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Detention Center Have Begun, DeSantis Says

Beds are seen inside a migrant detention center, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” located at the site of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, as US President Donald Trump tours the facility in Ochopee, Florida on July 1, 2025. President Trump is visiting a migrant detention center in a reptile-infested Florida swamp dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.” Trump will attend the opening of the 5,000-bed facility — located at an abandoned airfield in the Everglades wetlands — part of his expansion of deportations of undocumented migrants, his spokeswoman said. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says deportation flights from the remote Everglades immigration lockup known as Alligator Alcatraz began in the past few days. DeSantis said Friday that the flights operated by the Department of Homeland Security have transferred about 100 detainees from the immigration detention center to other countries. He expects that number to increase soon. Officials say two or three flights have happened, though they didn’t say which countries those flights headed to. Critics have condemned the facility as cruel and inhumane, but DeSantis and other Republicans have defended it as part of the state’s aggressive push to support President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.