(Ochopee, FL) -- Governor Ron DeSantis and Border Czar Tom Homan will visit "Alligator Alcatraz" Thursday morning as officials prepare to shut the immigration detention facility down permanently.
Florida's Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie says full demobilization of the site is underway just weeks ahead of the one-year anniversary.
Meanwhile, following the decommissioning of Alligator Alcatraz, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava is working to sell and transfer of all County-controlled lands at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport (TNT) to the National Park Service and other authorized Everglades restoration partners for permanent conservation.
"From the very beginning, I have raised serious concerns about the 'Alligator Alcatraz' detention facility because people have been held there in inhumane conditions without meaningful due process, while occupying land alongside one of the world’s most precious natural ecosystems," said Mayor Levine Cava. "Once this facility is decommissioned, we have an opportunity to permanently protect these lands for Everglades restoration and ensure they remain protected for generations to come. That is the legacy we should leave."
The $1.2 billion experiment that was once hailed by Governor Ron DeSantis and President Donald Trump as a model for other states should follow has now transferred its final few detainees to other detention centers or deported them to third countries.