The ability, situated close to the Everglade wetlands, has drawn human rights considerations and lawsuits over its situations.
The administration of United States President Donald Trump has introduced that every one immigrant detainees have been transferred out of a Florida detention facility often called Alligator Alcatraz, successfully shuttering the controversial facility.
The Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) mentioned on Wednesday that everybody being held within the state-run facility had been transferred out, citing considerations concerning the begin of the Atlantic hurricane season.
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“For the protection of the unlawful alien detainees, we transferred them to different amenities,” division spokesperson Lauren Bis advised The Related Press information company in an announcement.
She didn’t specify how many individuals had been transferred, or the place they had been despatched. Her assertion additionally didn’t point out whether or not the detention facility was completely shuttered, although studies of its impending closure had intensified for months.
A number of nameless officers advised The New York Occasions in Could that the remoted facility, situated inside Florida’s Massive Cypress Pure Protect, was too pricey to keep up.
The ability has attracted significant scrutiny because it was first introduced almost a yr in the past, on June 19, 2025.
Named after the notorious Alcatraz Island jail in San Francisco, “Alligator Alcatraz” was billed as a brief facility that might make use of its wetland environment as a deterrent for escape.
“If individuals get out, there’s not a lot ready for them apart from alligators and pythons. Nowhere to go. Nowhere to cover,” mentioned Florida Lawyer Normal James Uthmeier.
When it opened final July, Trump toured the ability personally with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a fellow Republican.
Trump has pushed for the mass deportation of immigrants throughout his second time period, and DeSantis, his former rival within the 2024 presidential race, has sought to deploy state assets to assist that effort.
However the detention centre, situated on an deserted airstrip, confronted controversy nearly as quickly because it began operations.
Indigenous leaders from the Miccosukee and Seminole nations opposed the development as detrimental to their houses and ceremonial websites within the close by Everglades.
Legal professionals and rights teams, in the meantime, questioned whether or not the centre’s momentary items would supply satisfactory shelter from the extreme warmth, heavy rains and hurricanes typical of South Florida. The hurricane season stretches from June by means of November.
Over its yr of operation, Alligator Alcatraz has been the topic of lawsuits and human rights complaints.
Detainees within the facility described being denied entry to attorneys, medical neglect and meals full of worms. The federal government introduced it will switch detainees out of the ability in Could.
“Transferring individuals out of this merciless facility is a crucial step, however it doesn’t erase the hurt that has already been achieved,” mentioned Amy Godshall, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
She helped lead a lawsuit towards the state and the federal authorities, alleging an absence of entry to authorized providers in Alligator Alcatraz. The detention centre’s distant location, it claimed, was a part of a technique to chop detainees off from assets.
“The state and federal authorities should completely shut this facility and decide to by no means detaining individuals there once more,” Godshall mentioned.
Detention amenities like Alligator Alcatraz have been the topic of protests throughout the nation, with critics denouncing inhumane situations because the norm.
Alligator Alcatraz was designed to carry as much as 3,000 individuals, and officers claimed that its “aluminium-frame structure” was able to withstanding wind speeds equal to a Class 2 hurricane.
Affirmation that the location’s detainees had all been transferred to different amenities got here because the Atlantic hurricane season noticed its first named storm of the 2026 season: Tropical Storm Arthur.
The storm is presently within the Gulf of Mexico, the place it’s anticipated to maneuver in the direction of Louisiana.
