Families with loved ones still being held at Florida’s controversial immigrant detention facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz” are raising concerns after NBC6 confirmed the site is expected to shut down in June.
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Among them is the family of Justo Betancourt, a 54-year-old Cuban man who has spent the last four months inside the remote Everglades detention camp after federal immigration officials attempted to deport him.
According to his daughter, Arianne Betancourt, her father was first detained during a routine immigration check-in.
“I panicked,” she said. “I think I was in a state of panic for maybe the first two weeks.”
She said her father was initially held at the Krome Detention Center before being transferred to Texas and then Mexico, where Mexican authorities allegedly denied his entry.
“They brought him back to Alligator Alcatraz,” she said.
Betancourt’s family is among several who have complained about conditions inside the facility since it opened last year. Her daughter is now calling for an independent investigation.
“People need to be held accountable, and that investigation needs to be thorough and as immaculate as it can be,” she said.
According to ICE records reviewed by NBC6, the facility housed an average daily population of about 1,400 detainees in April. NBC6 also found that nearly 60% of those detained were classified by ICE as “no ICE threat,” meaning they do not have criminal convictions.
Eve Samples, executive director of the environmental advocacy group Friends of the Everglades, said those figures contradict the original justification for building the detention center.
“When it was built without any public input in the middle of the Everglades last summer, officials said they needed to put it out there because they were going to house the worst of the worst,” Samples said. “And clearly that’s not the case.”
The organization filed a lawsuit alleging the state failed to conduct a federally required environmental review before opening the facility. Samples said public records obtained through litigation show the state has spent approximately $1.2 million per day operating the detention center.
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Florida officials are awaiting more than $600 million in federal reimbursement, while reports estimate the total cost of the detention camp could surpass $1.1 billion by June.
On Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis defended the high cost.
“What is the cost of allowing illegal immigration to continue to overrun our society?” DeSantis said. “I think those costs are staggering. And so, we’ve saved taxpayers money.”
Even with the facility expected to close, environmental advocates warn the damage to the Everglades may not be over.
“This will not be a win for the Everglades unless all the harm to this site is fully remediated,” Samples said. “We know that at least 20 acres of new asphalt were laid at the site without any public environmental review.”
She added that advocates remain concerned about impacts to nearby wetlands and Florida panther habitat.
“We need to study those impacts and the bottom line is this project was planned in secret, built in secret, operated in secret and even this apparent wind down is playing out without transparency,” Samples said.
Friends of the Everglades said it plans to continue fighting in court until the facility is permanently shut down.
“I think it will be looked at as a dark chapter in Everglades history when all is said and done,” Samples said.
State officials have repeatedly denied allegations of poor conditions inside the detention center and have not provided details about the facility’s future once operations end.
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