The state of Florida has opened a migrant detention middle within the Everglades. Its official title is Alligator Alcatraz, a reference to the previous most safety federal penitentiary in San Francisco Bay.
Whereas touring Alligator Alcatraz on July 1, 2025, President Donald Trump mentioned, “This facility will house some of the menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet.” However new reporting from the Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Occasions reveals that of greater than 700 detainees, solely a 3rd have prison convictions.
To seek out out extra in regards to the state of Florida’s involvement in immigration enforcement and who could be detained at Alligator Alcatraz, The Dialog spoke with Mark Schlakman. Schlakman is a lawyer and senior program director for The Florida State College Heart for the Development of Human Rights. He additionally served as particular counsel to Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles, working as a liaison of types with the federal authorities throughout the mid-Nineteen Nineties when tens of hundreds of Haitians and Cubans fled their island nations on makeshift boats, hoping to achieve protected haven in Florida.
U.S. Division of Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem has characterised the migrants being detained in services like Alligator Alcatraz as “murderers and rapists and traffickers and drug dealers.” Do we all know if the detainees at Alligator Alcatraz have been convicted of those types of crimes?
The Occasions/Herald revealed an inventory of 747 present detainees as of Sunday, July 13, 2025. Their reporters discovered that a few third of the detainees have prison convictions, together with tried homicide, unlawful reentry to the U.S., which is a federal crime, and visitors violations. Apparently a whole bunch extra have prices pending, although neither the federal nor state authorities have made public what these prices are.
There are additionally greater than 250 detainees with no prison historical past, simply immigration violations.
Is it against the law for somebody to be within the U.S. with out authorized standing? In different phrases, is an immigration violation against the law?
No, not essentially. It’s effectively established as a matter of legislation that bodily presence within the U.S. with out correct authorization is a civil violation, not a prison offense.
Nonetheless, if the federal authorities beforehand deported somebody, they are often topic to federal prison prosecution in the event that they try and return with out permission. That seems to be the case with among the detainees at Alligator Alcatraz.
What often occurs if a noncitizen commits against the law within the U.S.?
Usually, if a overseas nationwide is accused of committing against the law, they’re prosecuted in a state court docket identical to anybody else. If discovered responsible and sentenced to incarceration, they full their sentence in a state jail. As soon as they’ve served their time, state officers can hand them over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. They’re topic to deportation, however a federal immigration choose can hear any grounds for reduction.
DHS has clarified that it “has not implemented, authorized, directed or funded” Alligator Alcatraz, however quite the state of Florida is offering startup funds and operating this facility. What’s Florida’s curiosity on this? Are these largely migrants who’ve been scooped up by ICE in Florida?
It’s nonetheless unclear the place most of those detainees have been apprehended. However based mostly on an inventory of six detainees launched by Florida Lawyer Common James Uthmeier’s workplace, it’s clear that at the very least some have been apprehended exterior of Florida, and others merely could have been transferred to Alligator Alcatraz from federal custody elsewhere.
This calls to thoughts the time in 2022 when Gov. Ron DeSantis flew roughly 50 migrants from Texas to Martha’s Winery in Massachusetts at Florida taxpayer expense. These migrants additionally had no discernible presence in Florida.
To ascertain Alligator Alcatraz, DeSantis leveraged an immigration emergency declaration, which has been ongoing since Jan. 6, 2023. A state of emergency permits a governor to train extraordinary government authority. That is how he averted necessities resembling environmental affect evaluation within the Everglades and considerations expressed by tribal governance surrounding that space.
For now, the governor’s declaration stays unchallenged by the Florida Legislature. Environmental advocates have filed a lawsuit over Alligator Alcatraz, and the U.S. Supreme Court docket upheld a call by a federal choose quickly barring Florida from imposing its new immigration legal guidelines, which DeSantis had championed. However no court docket has but intervened to contest this extended state of emergency.
This presents a stark distinction to Gov. Lawton Chiles’ declaration of an immigration emergency throughout the mid-Nineteen Nineties. At the moment, tens of hundreds of Cubans and Haitians tried to achieve Florida shores in just about something that may float. Chiles’ actions as governor have been knowledgeable by his expertise as a U.S. senator throughout the Mariel boatlift in 1980, when 125,000 Cubans made landfall in Florida over the course of simply six months.
Chiles sued the Clinton administration for failing to adequately implement U.S. immigration legislation. However Chiles additionally entered into unprecedented agreements with the federal authorities, such because the 1996 Florida Immigration Initiative with U.S. Lawyer Common Janet Reno. His intent was to guard Florida taxpayers whereas enhancing federal enforcement capability, with out dehumanizing folks fleeing determined circumstances.
Throughout my tenure on Chiles’ workers, the governor typically opposed state laws involving immigration. Within the U.S.’s federalist system of presidency, immigration falls beneath the purview of the federal authorities, not the states. Chiles’ major concern was that Floridians wouldn’t be saddled with what should be federal prices and obligations.
Chiles was open to state and native officers supporting federal immigration enforcement. However he was conscious this required finesse to keep away from undermining group policing, public well being priorities and the financial well being of key Florida companies and industries. To at the present time, the Worldwide Affiliation of Chiefs of Police’s place displays Chiles’ considerations about such cooperation with the federal authorities.
Gov. Ron DeSantis outlines his plans for Alligator Alcatraz to the media on July 1, 2025.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP through Getty Photographs
Now, in 2025, DeSantis has taken a decidedly totally different tack through the use of Florida taxpayer {dollars} to determine Alligator Alcatraz. The state of Florida has fronted the US$450 million to pay for this facility. DeSantis reportedly intends to hunt reimbursement from FEMA’s Shelter and Companies Program. Finally, congressional motion could also be essential to acquire reimbursement. Florida is basically lending the federal authorities half a billion {dollars} and offering different help to assist assist the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement agenda.
Florida can also be establishing one other migrant detention facility at Camp Blanding Joint Coaching Heart close to Jacksonville. A 3rd apparently is being contemplated for the Panhandle.
ICE claims that the last word choice of whom to detain at these services belongs to the state of Florida, by way of the Florida Division of Emergency Administration. Members of Congress who visited Alligator Alcatraz earlier this week have disputed ICE’s declare that Florida is in cost.
You suggested Florida Division of Emergency Administration management straight for a number of years throughout the administrations of Gov. Charlie Crist and Gov. Rick Scott. Does operating a detention facility like Alligator Alcatraz fall inside its typical mission?
The division is tasked with getting ready for and responding to each pure and human-caused disasters. In Florida, that typically means hurricanes. Whereas the division could interact to facilitate shelter, I don’t recall any insurance policies or procedures considering something even remotely just like Alligator Alcatraz.
DeSantis may conceivably argue that that is in step with a 287(g) settlement authorizing state and native assist for federal immigration enforcement. However such agreements sometimes require federal supervision of state and native actions, not the opposite means round.
