Inmates have been moved out of Alligator Alcatraz, the Everglades migrant detention site, the Trump administration confirmed Wednesday to Inside Climate News.
“As we enter into hurricane season, ICE and the state of Florida have moved illegal aliens from the soft-sided facility,” according to a statement provided by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman. “For the safety of the illegal alien detainees, we transferred them to other facilities.”
For weeks, speculation has swirled amid reports the facility would close imminently. Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has been funding the site using the state’s Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund, after issuing an executive order in 2023 declaring a state of emergency related to immigration. More than $6.5 billion has been disbursed from the fund since its establishment in 2022, the vast majority for hurricanes and other extreme weather events. Some $573 million has gone toward immigration, including Alligator Alcatraz.
The facility, composed of a cluster of tents, is situated on a remote Everglades air strip surrounded by the Big Cypress National Preserve and the lands of the Miccosukee Tribe. The Atlantic hurricane season began June 1 and extends through the end of November.
The spending has depleted the fund to $256 million, according to a March estimate. The Legislature allocated $250 million for the fund in this year’s state budget, approved earlier this month. But the money is contingent on DeSantis signing a separate measure, SB 7040, that would establish new guardrails for how the fund may be used, said Casey Darling Kniffin, senior science and policy advisor at Friends of the Everglades. Among other things, SB 7040 would require the governor to consult with the Legislature on certain emergencies and provide a quarterly report on spending. DeSantis has yet to sign the state budget; the fiscal year starts July 1.
The DeSantis administration has received only $58 million of the $608 million federal reimbursement expected for Alligator Alcatraz, the Miami Herald reported. The state opened the detention site in early July 2025 as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
“Our mission continues whether or not Alligator Alcatraz is necessary or not. I think when we did it we thought that it would be six months to a year, in terms of the necessity of it,” DeSantis said Tuesday during a public event in Winter Haven.
“That’s kind of where we would land if you see that happen over the next week or two,” he said about the site’s potential closure. “I’m glad that we stepped up and filled the void there because I know it’s kept people safe.”
Both the Trump and DeSantis administrations declined to comment on plans for the site or where detainees were relocated. For their part, environmental groups say they will continue their litigation over the facility. The groups, along with the Miccosukee Tribe, contend the facility was unlawfully rushed to completion without a required environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The government agencies have argued that the site is a state, not a federal one, and that the federal review is unnecessary. The agencies also said the facility’s environmental impact is minimal.
Other litigation has accused the federal and state governments of unlawful activity involving the treatment of detainees and polluting air emissions, associated with more than 200 diesel-burning generators and 100 diesel-burning lighting towers installed at the site.
“If it is true that folks have been removed from the site, given its reportedly inhumane conditions, we are grateful. But it does strike me as odd that we have to guess about what’s happening there, right? We don’t operate secret prisons here. We don’t disappear people,” said Paul Schwiep, an attorney representing the environmental groups. “What’s next for this site is an important question.”
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Amy Green covers the environment and climate change from Orlando, Florida. She is a mid-career journalist and author whose extensive reporting on the Everglades is featured in the book MOVING WATER, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, and podcast DRAINED, available wherever you get your podcasts. Amy’s work has been recognized with many awards, including a prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award and Public Media Journalists Association award.