Florida Governor Ron DeSantis held a press conference at “Alligator Alcatraz” on Friday morning and announced that hundreds of illegal aliens have already passed through the center and been deported.
DeSantis said that flights have begun taking off from the Everglades deportation center’s on-site runway and will increase.
We stood up Alligator Alcatraz in just eight days as a centralized facility for deportation staging. The facility has a two-mile runway that allows federal military aircraft to transport illegal aliens out of the country, right on site. These deportation flights operated by DHS… pic.twitter.com/o6xpaEJ753
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) July 25, 2025
“You’re going to see the numbers go up dramatically,” DeSantis said.
The flights are being operated by the Department of Homeland Security, and two or three have already departed. DeSantis did not say what country the deported migrants were sent to.
Governor DeSantis Speaks from Alligator Alcatraz https://t.co/AJeIVThH7O
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) July 25, 2025
“This was never intended to be something where people are just held and we just kind of twiddle our thumbs,”DeSantis said. “The whole purpose is to make this be a place that can facilitate increased frequency and numbers of deportations of illegal aliens.”
The governor continued, “That is the goal and one of the reasons why this was a sensible spot is that you have a runway that is right here, you don’t have to drive them to an airport, you go a couple of thousand feet and they can be on a plane.”
Alligator Alcatraz was built in just days and is currently holding 2,000 people. According to DeSantis, they can hold double that amount.
“We were able to, under Kevin Guthrie’s leadership, within record time, create a facility that could support intake, processing and eventually deporting these illegal aliens. And that’s important to deport from Florida and obviously from the United States as well, ” DeSantis said.
The Associated Press reports:
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operates deportation flights mainly from a few hubs, including Harlingen, Texas; Alexandria, Louisiana; and Mesa, Arizona. Others are scattered across the country.
There were just over 200 flights in June, according to Witness at the Border, an advocacy group that analyzes flight data. It was the highest tally since the group started keeping track in January 2020.
The post WATCH: DeSantis Says Hundreds of Illegal Aliens Have Already Been Deported from Alligator Alcatraz appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.