Florida and the Trump administration are discussing possibly closing an immigration detention center located in a remote part of the Everglades. The Department of Homeland Security has concluded the facility, which opened last summer and costs Florida hundreds of millions of dollars every year, is too expensive to operate, The New York Times reported, citing unnamed sources.
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis maintains the facility – known as “Alligator Alcatraz” – has aided the Trump administration immigration enforcement efforts by providing more beds to house federal detainees, but the facility was always intended to be temporary.
Critics have said the facility is unsanitary and inmates are kept in inhumane conditions, which state officials say is false. Last month, the facility held 1,400 male detainees.
DeSantis has said the federal government would reimburse Florida for the cost of operating the center, but it’s reportedly yet to receive any of the $608 million it requested for a year’s operation. The partial government shutdown of DHS that ended last week was partly to blame for the delay.
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