The facility is located near the Everglades Wetlands, which has raised human rights concerns and lawsuits over its environment.
President Donald Trump’s administration has announced it has removed all immigration detainees from the Florida detention facility known as Alligator Alcatraz, effectively shutting down the controversial facility.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Wednesday that everyone held at state-run facilities had been moved out, citing concerns about the start of the Atlantic hurricane season.
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“To ensure the safety of the illegal aliens, we have transferred them to other facilities,” department spokeswoman Lauren Biss told The Associated Press in a statement.
He did not say how many people had been transferred or where. Her statement also did not say whether the detention facility had been permanently closed, although reports that its closure was imminent had been growing for several months.
Multiple anonymous officials told The New York Times in May that the isolated facility, located in Florida’s Big Cypress Wilderness Preserve, was too expensive to maintain.
The facility has garnered a lot of attention since it was first announced nearly a year ago on June 19, 2025.
Alligator Alcatraz, named after San Francisco’s infamous Alcatraz prison, was promoted as a temporary facility that would use the surrounding wetlands as an escape deterrent.
“When people go outside, there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons. There’s nowhere to go and nowhere to hide,” said Florida Attorney General James Usmeyer.
When the facility opened last July, President Trump personally toured the facility with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a fellow Republican.
Mr. Trump has pushed for mass deportations of immigrants during his second term, and Mr. DeSantis, his former rival in the 2024 presidential race, is seeking to commit national resources to support the effort.
However, the detention center, located on an abandoned airstrip, faced controversy from the beginning of its operation.
Miccosukee and Seminole Indian leaders opposed the construction, saying it would negatively impact their homes and ceremonial grounds near the Everglades.
Lawyers and rights groups, meanwhile, questioned whether the center’s temporary units would provide sufficient shelter from South Florida’s extreme heat, heavy rains and hurricanes. Hurricane season lasts from June to November.
Alligator Alcatraz has been the subject of lawsuits and allegations of human rights abuses over the year it has been in operation.
Detainees at the facility testified that they were denied access to lawyers, withheld medical care, and fed food containing insects. The government announced in May that detainees would be removed from the facility.
“Removing people from this cruel facility is an important step, but it does not erase the harm that has already been done,” said Amy Godshall, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
She led a lawsuit against the state and federal governments alleging a lack of legal services on Alligator Alcatraz Island. It argued that the remote location of the detention center was part of a strategy to separate detainees from resources.
“The state and federal government must permanently close this facility and commit to never holding people there again,” Godshall said.
Detention facilities like Alligator Alcatraz have been the subject of protests across the United States, with critics accusing them of perpetuating inhumane conditions.
Alligator Alcatraz is designed to accommodate up to 3,000 people, and officials claimed its “aluminum frame structure” can withstand wind speeds equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane.
It was confirmed that all inmates at the facility had been transferred to other facilities during the Atlantic hurricane season when Tropical Storm Arthur, the first named storm of the 2026 season, formed.
The storm is currently in the Gulf of Mexico and is expected to move toward Louisiana.
