U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has moved detainees out of a controversial detention center in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” an ICE spokesperson told CBS News, citing safety concerns around hurricane season.
“For the safety of the illegal alien detainees, we transferred them to other facilities,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
CBS News Miami reported last month that companies hired by the state of Florida to operate Alligator Alcatraz were notified that the facility was being shut down, with roughly 1,400 remaining detainees expected to be removed.
Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin later told CBS News the agency didn’t have any near-term plans to close the facility. But he acknowledged it faces weather-related “vulnerabilities.”
“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,” Mullin said.
Located on an unused airstrip in the middle of the Everglades, Alligator Alcatraz was opened last year, as the Trump administration sought to rapidly grow ICE’s detention capacity in order to surge arrests and deportations. Detainees at the makeshift facility were housed in large air conditioned tents, filled with rows of bunk beds and cells formed by chain-link fences.
The administration has cast Alligator Alcatraz as a cost-effective way of housing people accused of being in the U.S. illegally, and argued it could be a model for other immigration detention centers set up by states.
Some officials have also suggested Alligator Alcatraz austere setup and harsh surroundings could be a deterrent against illegal immigration. During a visit last summer, President Trump said, “We’re going to teach them how to run away from an alligator if they escape prison.”
And former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem delivered a warning that people in the U.S. illegally who do not “self-deport” from the country “may end up here.”
Alligator Alcatraz drew intense criticism and legal pushback from immigration advocates, environmental groups and a local Native American tribe. Critics alleged inhumane conditions, including poor food, nonfunctional toilets and a lack of access to attorneys. The Trump administration has denied that conditions at the detention center were inadequate.
