U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Tuesday that all detainees at the remote Everglades detention facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz” had been relocated, without specifying how many people were involved or where they were taken. The agency, in a statement reported by NBC Miami, said it transferred “illegal aliens from the soft sided facility” for safety reasons related to the approaching hurricane season.
The announcement follows months of scrutiny over conditions at the Ochopee, Florida, site, which opened in July 2025 and quickly drew national attention for what critics described as brutal treatment of detainees. Former President Donald Trump had celebrated the facility’s harsh conditions.
In a December 2025 report, Amnesty International alleged that detainees were subjected to arbitrary punishment inside a two-foot-high metal cage that left them shackled and outdoors without water. “One time, two people in my cell were calling out to the guards telling them that I needed my medication. Ten guards rushed into the cell and threw them to the ground,” one detainee told the human rights organization. “They were taken to the ‘box’ and punished just for trying to help me. I saw a guy who was put in it for an entire day.”
An investigation by The Guardian published earlier this month found that more than half a dozen detainees alleged they were given water containing mosquito larvae. According to the detainees, guards used the allegedly spoiled water to pressure them into signing documents written in English that they could not understand.
The Florida Tributary investigation reported that the facility cost state taxpayers an estimated $1.2 million a day to operate.
In May, The New York Times reported that Florida planned to shut down Alligator Alcatraz. Citing a federal official and three people familiar with the matter, the outlet said state officials told vendors that detainees would be transferred out at the beginning of June.
Speaking at a press conference last month, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the state “didn’t build any permanent facilities down there, because we knew it was going to be temporary,” but did not provide a timeline for the closure.
Stephanie Hartman, a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Emergency Management, which oversees the facility’s operations, said in a statement: “Medical facilities and staff, including a pharmacy, are available 24/7 to detainees.”
ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Guardian on Tuesday.