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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Richard Luscombe in Miami

DeSantis boasts of deporting 21,000 as notorious Alligator Alcatraz jail closes

beds and toilets inside a makeshift detention center
Toilets and beds are seen inside a migrant detention center, dubbed ‘Alligator Alcatraz’, in Ochopee, Florida, on 1 July 2025. Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, boasted on Thursday of deporting 21,000 people from Alligator Alcatraz, as he confirmed the closure of the notorious immigration jail hastily erected in the Everglades that became a byword for cruelty, human rights abuses and environmental damage.

Standing beside Tom Homan, Donald Trump’s so-called border czar, at a press conference at the now dismantled site in Ochopee, in the environmentally sensitive region in south Florida, DeSantis presented its year-long operation as a victory for the president’s aggressive immigration enforcement agenda.

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