Alligator Alcatraz detainees transferred as ICE prepares for hurricane season

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that all detainees held at Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz detention center have been moved to other facilities ahead of the upcoming hurricane season. The Department of Homeland Security provided only limited information about how many people were transferred or where they were sent, leaving the future status of the soft‑sided center unclear.

Alligator Alcatraz, opened last summer in an alligator‑infested swamp, has faced intense criticism for unsanitary conditions, including reports of wastewater‑covered floors and contaminated food, and has been the subject of multiple lawsuits by civil‑rights and environmental groups. A federal judge previously ordered the facility shut down over environmental concerns, though that injunction was temporarily stayed on appeal. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has stressed that the center was intended only as a temporary solution.

Advocates such as ACLU attorney Amy Godshall and community activist Arianne Betancourt say the transfer does not erase the harm inflicted and urge a permanent closure of the controversial site.