Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” Disaster Should Stop Colorado’s ICE Jail Plans

The Trump administration’s push to expand immigration detention is hitting a hard wall in Florida, and Colorado should take notice. The Everglades ICE detention center, mockingly dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” has become a money pit for Florida, costing more than $1 million a day to operate in a remote swampy area between Miami and Naples. Now, talks are underway to shut it down after the Department of Homeland Security concluded it’s too expensive and ineffective to continue.

Florida still awaits $608 million in federal reimbursements for the center’s construction and operation, leaving the state on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars. Private vendors hired to run the facility are struggling to cover costs, exposing the financial recklessness of this massive detention experiment.

Meanwhile, in Colorado, the Trump administration is pushing to reopen the shuttered Big Horn Correctional Facility near Denver as a new ICE detention center. The facility, previously closed in 2014, has a 1,200-bed capacity and is slated to be operated by The GEO Group, a private prison company notorious for profiting off incarceration.

Colorado lawmakers are sounding the alarm. Representatives Brittany Pettersen, Michael Bennet, and John Hickenlooper have expressed “profound concern” over the contract and the expansion of ICE’s operations in the state. Pettersen called the agency “rogue” and “lawless,” condemning the trauma inflicted on immigrant families ripped apart by detention.

This push comes amid a $45 billion boost in funding for immigration detention secured by congressional Republicans to fuel Trump’s mass deportation agenda. But with Colorado facing a $1.5 billion budget shortfall, relying on the Trump administration’s empty promises and IOUs is reckless.

Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” fiasco should serve as a killshot to any plans for new ICE detention centers in Colorado. The financial disaster and humanitarian costs are clear—this is not a model worth replicating. Local officials and communities must reject these expansions before more families suffer and taxpayers foot the bill for another failed detention center.

We will keep tracking this story and holding the Trump administration accountable for its costly and cruel detention policies. Sign up for our newsletter to stay informed.