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.

Here is a brief history of the land where Florida officials and the federal government are building "Alligator Alcatraz."

Tribal nations with ancestral ties to the land are denouncing the development of 'Alligator Alcatraz' in Big Cypress National Preserve.