ICE Moves Detainees From Florida Everglades Facility Over Hurricane Concerns

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has moved detainees out of a detention center in the Florida Everglades known as Alligator Alcatraz, an ICE spokesperson told CBS News.

"For the safety of the illegal alien detainees, we transferred them to other facilities," the spokesperson said.

The facility sits on an unused airstrip in the middle of the Everglades. It opened last year as the Trump administration worked to expand ICE detention space for arrests and deportations. Detainees lived in large air-conditioned tents with rows of bunk beds and chain-link fence cells.

CBS News Miami reported last month that companies operating the center were told it would close and that roughly 1,400 detainees would be moved.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told CBS News the agency had no immediate plans to shut the site but noted 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.

The administration has described the facility as a low-cost option for housing people accused of being in the country illegally and suggested it could serve as a model for other state-run centers. Some officials have said its remote location might discourage illegal immigration.

During a visit last summer, President Trump said the site would teach detainees "how to run away from an alligator if they escape prison." Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem warned that people in the country illegally who do not leave voluntarily "may end up here."