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Everglades Tent Camp Faces Scrutiny Over Migrant Conditions and $450 Million Cost

Florida is fronting nearly $450 million a year to detain 900 migrants in tented camps under a program facing intensifying legal and environmental challenges.

An aerial view of Krome North Service Processing Center, one of three Florida immigration detention facilities whose conditions were documented in a Human Rights Watch report published Monday.
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Work progresses on a new migrant detention facility dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz," at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility in the Florida Everglades, Friday, July 4, 2025, in Ochopee, Florida.
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Overview

  • Roughly 900 men are held in temporary tents at the Dade-Collier airstrip with reports of constant lighting, overflowing toilets, minimal food and denied medical care.
  • Environmental and tribal groups have filed lawsuits challenging the camp’s construction on protected wetlands without required federal reviews.
  • Only about 60 percent of detainees have criminal convictions while the rest are held for civil or minor infractions, including DACA recipients.
  • Florida is covering the facility’s estimated $450 million annual operating cost up front and intends to seek FEMA reimbursement through the Department of Homeland Security.
  • DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has praised the model’s cost-effectiveness and is evaluating whether to replicate the tent-based approach in other states.