“Alligator Alcatraz” was built in the heart of Big Cypress National Preserve, basically right in the middle of the Everglades. At least 20 acres of new pavement was laid; stadium lighting lit up the sky for miles around, affecting panther and other wildlife habitat; absolutely everything had to be trucked in and out.

All this for $1.2 billion, a cost that continues to rise.

The facility shut down in June; now comes an internal report by the Department of Homeland Security that found inhumane detention practices at the facility. Surprise, surprise.

This on top of the fact that the state Joint Legislative Budget Commission ponied up an extra $250 million to the Florida Department of Emergency Management because FDEM was running out of money — in part, due to the cost of “Alligator Alcatraz.”

Enough. “Alligator Alcatraz,” dreamed up by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, has been a colossal faceplant in virtually every way imaginable. We agree with Uthmeier’s opponent, Democratic AG candidate Jose Javier Rodriguez, who has called for a full investigation.

Said Rodriguez: “We need to make sure that this never happens again.”

It never should have happened in the first place.

VoteWater opposed “Alligator Alcatraz” from the start and filed an amicus brief in the federal environmental case against the facility. No proper National Environmental Policy Act review was done prior to construction; there seemed to be this blanket assumption that since there was an existing air strip on site, no environmental harm would come to the surrounding Everglades.

Of course, there were always those who held that illegal immigration was such a crisis that even if the Everglades were harmed, it was justifiable.

But there were other places to build the lockup. Big Cypress was deliberately chosen for its surrounding landscape; the very thing VoteWater and other organizations strive to preserve was, with “Alligator Alcatraz,” a prop to be exploited.

And that has ominous implications for other fragile ecosystems across Florida which might similarly be exploited for political gain by this or subsequent administrations.