Military Planes Appear to Fly Alligator Alcatraz Detainees to Texas, Louisiana

The first deportation flights from Florida's new immigration detention center in the Everglades took off this week, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Friday.

On Friday morning, in a press conference held outside the state-run facility known as Alligator Alcatraz, DeSantis revealed that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has facilitated "a number" of flights carrying "hundreds" of migrant detainees from the center this week.

While DeSantis didn't say where the planes were headed, data from AirNav Radar, a Florida-based flight tracking company, appears to show that two military aircraft left the facility for Texas and Louisiana.

According to the data, one flight left the facility at 4:12 p.m. on July 23 and landed at Alexandria International Airport in Alexandria, Louisiana, around 6 p.m. The aircraft was listed as an Alenia HC-27J Spartan, a tactical transport plane used by the U.S. Army and Coast Guard. The following morning, around 10:30 a.m. on July 24, another plane left the facility for Valley International Airport in Harlingen, Texas, according to the data. That aircraft was listed as an Alenia C-27J Spartan, another military plane.

Both Alexandria, Louisiana, and Harlingen, Texas, serve as staging and departure points for deportation flights.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management, which is currently running the detention facility, didn't respond to New Times' request for comment.

In response to a request for comment about the flights, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at DHS, replied in an email to New Times just as DeSantis' press conference began: "Stay tuned!"

Since Alligator Alcatraz opened in July, speculation has swirled about whether deportation flights would depart from the facility, which sits on a remote airstrip known as the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport deep in the swampy  Everglades.

On Friday, DeSantis said the site now has radar, runway lights, ground-to-air communications, and 5,000 gallons of jet fuel.

"This airport is able to accept commercial flight aircraft and conduct both day and nighttime operations," the governor said.

Hundreds of detainees — many reportedly without criminal records  — are being held at the remote tent city deep in the Everglades. The secretive immigration detention center has been described as a "black hole," where detainees have limited access to attorneys and face inhumane conditions like overflowing toilets, massive mosquitoes, and inadequate medical care.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management quickly constructed the site, which officials say will detain more than 3,000 people. The Trump administration has touted the facility as a place to hold the "worst of the worst" criminals before removing them from the country.

This is a breaking story and will be updated as events warrant.