U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials announced that it has moved all detainees held in its Florida immigration detention center, which is known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”
“As we enter into hurricane season, ICE and the state of Florida have moved illegal aliens from the soft sided facility. For the safety of the illegal alien detainees, we transferred them to other facilities,” ICE said in a statement.
The agency did not disclose the number of detainees transferred or the center to which they were moved.
"Alligator Alcatraz" Shut Down?
The transfer of detainees comes amid reports of the detention facility’s closure.
In May 2026, a federal official informed The New York Times that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) deemed the center ineffective.
DHS’ evaluation comes as reports indicated that the facility has cost the state of Florida more than $1 million a day to operate.
Less than a week after the initial report, contractors hired by the state of Florida to operate the center were notified that the facility was being shut down, with the 1,400 detainees scheduled to be removed a few weeks later.
"They said the last detainee will leave in June," a source familiar with the matter told CBS News Miami.
DeSantis Says "It Was Never Meant To Be Permanent"
“Alligator Alcatraz,” located at a remote airstrip in the middle of the Florida Everglades, opened in July 2025 under Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration in an effort to assist President Donald Trump’s rampant immigration crackdown during his second term.
“The state doesn’t direct people there. It’s DHS that directs them there. And so if DHS stops directing them there, then we obviously are not just going to,” Gov. DeSantis said when asked about the center during a news conference.
“It was never meant to be permanent.” “I don’t think that it’s empty now, at least as of yesterday when I got briefed on it, but they’ve had tens, hundreds of billions of dollars plowed into that agency.”
