U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement moved detainees out of a soft-sided detention center in the Florida Everglades known as "Alligator Alcatraz," and the Department of Homeland Security said all detainees have been transferred to other facilities citing hurricane-season safety concerns. Department spokesperson Lauren Bis said in an emailed statement, "For the safety of the illegal alien detainees, we transferred them to other facilities."
The hurricane season spans six months, from June through November, and shortly after the transfer announcement the National Hurricane Center reported the first tropical storm of the 2026 season had formed off the Texas coast.
Companies hired by the state to operate Alligator Alcatraz were notified last month that the facility was being shut down, and roughly 1,400 remaining detainees were expected to be removed.
Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said the agency did not have any near-term plans to close the facility but acknowledged it faces weather-related "vulnerabilities." He said, "We have plans in case of a natural emergency such as a wildfire or hurricane, to have to be able to bring it down and pull the individuals out."
The site sits on an unused airstrip in the middle of the Everglades and opened July 3, 2025 after being built by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration in a matter of days; President Trump toured the site on July 1, 2025.
Detainees were housed in large air-conditioned tents filled with rows of bunk beds and cells formed by chain-link fences and have described difficulty accessing lawyers and poor physical conditions, including worms in the food, toilets that do not flush, floors flooded with fecal waste and pervasive mosquitoes and other insects.
Immigration advocates and attorneys said they noticed an increase in transfers over the past two weeks and lost contact with dozens of detainees. Katie Blankenship, an immigration attorney at Sanctuary of the South, said the 50 clients she and other attorneys had been advising during the past 20 days have been moved from Alligator Alcatraz to other facilities in South Florida, California, Arizona, Louisiana and Texas and are "unavailable to family or counsel, typically for a period of about a week." She said she found their locations using the official detainee search tool and had not received official notice of the moves.
Legal and advocacy groups urged permanent closure. Amy Godshall, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who filed a lawsuit alleging a lack of access to legal representation for detainees, said, "Transferring people out of this cruel facility is an important step, but it does not erase the harm that has already been done" and called for the state and federal government to permanently close the site. Renata Bozzetto, deputy director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, said that even if the facility is closed, many detained people will be transferred elsewhere and "many corporations and contractors will have walked away with millions in profits, while immigrant families are left to pick up the pieces."
DeSantis said in May that the South Florida Detention Facility always was meant to be temporary and that it had processed and deported 22,000 detainees since its opening.