In July 2025, as officials denied reports of reported "horrific" and "inhumane" conditions inside "Alligator Alcatraz," a new migrant detention center in Ochopee, Florida, a claim (archived) circulated online that incinerators had been or would be installed at the facility.
One X user, sharing a TikTok video (archived) uploaded on July 1, wrote: "1 million likes on TikTok for a video saying that Alligator Alcatraz is installing incinerators."
The claim also circulated on Facebook (archived), Bluesky (archived) and Instagram. Snopes readers wrote in asking if the claim was true.
However, we found no evidence that anyone involved in the construction of "Alligator Alcatraz" had installed incinerators at the time of this writing. A TikTok user originally made the claim in a video that has since disappeared from the platform. We found no credible news outlets or officials reporting the claim as true (archived, archived, archived, archived).
Though a state official and local reporting confirmed construction involved private businesses, we found no proof that officials or businesses contracted incinerators for the "Alligator Alcatraz" site.
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said of the claim:
Beyond disgusting: From comparisons to the modern-day Nazi gestapo to implying incinerators are being used at Alligator Alcatraz for nefarious purposes, the vilification of ICE must stop. This type of rhetoric directly contributes to ICE law enforcement facing a nearly 700% increase in assaults against them. Our brave law enforcement should be thanked for risking their lives everyday to arrest violent criminal illegal aliens including gang members, murderers, and pedophiles.
We also reached out to the White House, the office of Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida Emergency Management and eight named private contractors on the detention center project to ask whether they had installed or planned to install incinerators at the new detention center and, if so, for what purpose. We await replies to our queries.
Snopes viewed a reposting of an early version of the claim on TikTok, which showed a clip of user @travyn overlaid with the text:
A few days ago a neighbor told me that his cousin was offered a contracting job to install "a ton" of incinerators into Alligator Alcatraz. I made a video establishing it as an alleged rumor. After listening to Karoline Leavitt talk about it today, I can't consider it alleged anymore.
We reached out to the user over email to ask for contact details for the neighbor or their cousin or any other information about the alleged contract and await a reply.
What officials said
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a June 30, 2025, news conference that President Donald Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and DeSantis, along with other officials, would visit "Alligator Alcatraz" on July 1.
Leavitt said, "The facility is in the heart of the Everglades and will be informally known as 'Alligator Alcatraz.' There's only one road leading in and the only way out is a one-way flight. It is isolated and surrounded by dangerous wildlife in unforgiving terrain."
She praised the facility as "an efficient and low-cost way to help carry out the largest mass-deportation campaign in American history."
Leavitt did not go into further detail about the features of the detention center and did not mention incinerators at the facility during the news conference.
Following Trump's tour of "Alligator Alcatraz" on July 1, news outlets and editorial photo agencies such as Getty Images shared images from inside the facility that did not show incinerators.
During the July 1 visit, Trump, Noem, DeSantis and Kevin Guthrie, executive director for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, also spoke to the media. This news conference did not include mention of incinerators but did confirm that authorities had partnered with private businesses to build the facility.
Guthrie said, "There are over 13 different vendors that came together to get this solved in eight days. Truly, a whole lot of private-sector partnership to get that done."
Gurthrie did not say exactly what the 13 vendors provided. Reporting by the Miami Herald identified eight of the private vendors: CDR Maguire, Doodie Calls, GardaWorlds, Garner Environmental Services, Gothams, Granny's Alliance, Longview International Technological Solutions and SLSCO. Snopes reached out to the companies to ask whether they had supplied or contracted incinerators for "Alligator Alcatraz" and await replies to our queries.