Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced at a press conference Thursday that the state's "Alligator Alcatraz" detention camp is shutting down after less than a year in operation.
It's a quiet end for a detention camp that the state of Florida opened last July with a splashy media rollout, including Alligator Alcatraz merchandise and tours by President Donald Trump and conservative social media influencers. But the hype faded as the camp, located on a remote airstrip in the middle of the Big Cypress National Preserve, racked up huge operating costs and numerous lawsuits—a sort of Fyre Festival of incipient authoritarianism.
