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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is removing detainees from “Alligator Alcatraz” in preparation for hurricane season.
A statement from the department did not say how many detainees were transferred or where they were relocated.
“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,” an agency spokesperson said in a statement.
Built on an old airstrip in the middle of the Everglades, the facility has faced a barrage of lawsuits as well as reports of cruel conditions in a facility where cells were made with chain-link fences.
There have been conflicting reports regarding the future of the facility, which was opened as Trump administration officials boasted of the harsh conditions and dangerous wildlife surrounding it.
CBS News reported last month that the facility could close as soon as June, though Markwayne Mullin, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), later told the outlet that ICE had no official plan to shut down the facility, which had at the time about 1,400 detainees.
“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.
Litigation over the detention facility initially sparked rulings ordering its shutdown, but an appeals court later blocked the lower court ruling, keeping it open.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Tuesday told reporters the facility was not meant to be permanent.
“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. It was never meant to be permanent,” he said, according to NBC News.
“I think when we did it, we thought that it would be six months to a year in terms of the necessity of it.”
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