About AlligatorPelican

Purpose

AlligatorPelican tracks the public cost of the Alligator Alcatraz detention facility in the Florida Everglades. Every number on this site cites a public source. Claims without sources are not published. Opinions are clearly labeled and visually separated from factual claims.

Origin of the name

"Alligator Alcatraz" is the nickname coined by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier for the immigration detention facility on the Dade-Collier airstrip in the Everglades.

"Alcatraz" itself is a Spanish word for pelican, borrowed in turn from Arabic. Spanish explorer Juan Manuel de Ayala named San Francisco Bay's island Isla de los Alcatraces — Island of the Pelicans — in 1775. The pelican meaning is European, not Indigenous; the Ohlone name for that island was Metini, "place of the dead."^{etymonline-alcatraz}

The phrase "Alligator Pelican" — and this domain — was inspired by the Netflix-released Last Podcast on the Left episode Pain in the Everglades, in which Captain Ed Larson takes the hosts on an airboat tour of the Everglades and discusses the facility and the pelican etymology.^{lpotl-pain-in-the-everglades}

Editorial Standards

Each factual assertion carries at least one citation linking to a non-retracted source. Figures are updated within 48 hours of a credible correction. Retracted sources remain visible on /sources with retraction metadata — transparency over deletion.

Full editorial checklist and contribution guidelines: /methodology and CONTRIBUTING.md on GitHub ↗.

Corrections

To report a factual error or request a correction, email corrections@alligatorpelican.com. Factual errors are corrected within 48 hours of a credible complaint; a correction notice is posted on /changelog.