Critics have condemned the detention facility and what they call the state’s apparent reliance on alligators as a security measure as a cruel spectacle, while DeSantis and other state officials have defended it as part of Florida’s muscular efforts to carry out President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Florida this week started construction on a migrant detention facility the state is billing as “efficient” and “low-cost” – because Mother Nature will provide much of the security. “Alligator Alcatraz,

The governor's office announced that the state would use emergency powers to seize land in the Everglades to create an immigrant detention center.