‘Alligator Alcatraz’: Trump’s $245 million Everglades immigration jail set to close within days

Just like that, Donald Trump’s immigrant detention center in Florida that he warmly referred to as “Alligator Alcatraz” will be a thing of the past.

From the onset of the detention center, protests erupted at the very idea of a detention center constructed on an abandoned airstrip in the middle of the Big Cypress National Preserve in the Everglades. Trump credited the ingenuity of the location for its possession of reptiles and amphibians and said escapees had to run in “zigzag,” adding that the presence of wild animals was the “best security money can’t buy.” Since then, environmentalists and human rights activists have been in nonstop protests in the locale of the detention center.

Furthermore, the detention center was not well maintained at all. Reports of the tents being unable to hold rainfall water were already deeply explored in the press. There were also worms in food, dysfunctional toilets and showers, mosquito infestations, and other undesirable conditions. A former guard at the location even went as far as to describe the conditions she witnessed as being similar to an over sized kennel.

Federal judge Kathleen Williams took all those concerns into consideration when she delivered an 82-page ruling ordering the detention center to be closed. Initially, the Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had vowed to challenge the decision with an appeal, but according to The Guardian, he has since backtracked from that and is planning on dismantling the entire institution in 60 days.

At a time when Trump is even denying aid to HIV/AIDS victims due to his administration reportedly enforcing cost-saving measures for every federal action — the staggering cost of Alligator Alcatraz has come back into public debate. There are some reports that estimate the cost of the entire institution to be $450 million. The Guardian confirms that since the institution officially opened on Jul. 1, they have signed more than $245 million in contracts to run the institution.

The money has now certainly gone to poor use, as it is also confirmed that the institution was expected to host 3,000 detainees — yet only between 300 and 350 detainees currently reside in the detention center. The American Civil Liberties Union has raised grave concerns about the state of the detainees there, alleging that they’re being abused and having their constitutional rights denied. There’s also added concern that they’re being denied access to their attorneys during their time at the detention center.

The Trump administration is reportedly transferring the detainees to other immigration facilities. It should be noted that what initiated the construction of this detainment center in the first place was Trump flirting with the idea of revitalizing the original Alcatraz for immigrant detainees as a symbolic stand against illegal immigration. The feasibility studies rendered it too expensive — and that’s how he ended up with a $245 to $450 million detainment center that lasted only a couple of months in a self-diagnosed era of financial belt-tightening.

What’s becoming more apparent in this stage of Trump’s second term is he is no longer getting favorable results from the courts. The administration is, however, trying to speed up deportation by hiring more immigration judges — but even with that, concerns are growing considering their new hires no longer require experience in immigration law.