The administration of United States President Donald Trump has announced that all immigrant detainees have been transferred out of a Florida detention facility known as Alligator Alcatraz, effectively shuttering the controversial facility.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Wednesday that everyone being held in the state-run facility had been transferred out, citing concerns about the start of the Atlantic hurricane season.

“For the safety of the illegal alien detainees, we transferred them to other facilities,” department spokesperson Lauren Bis told The Associated Press news agency in a statement.

She did not specify how many people were transferred, or where they were sent. Her statement also did not indicate whether the detention facility was permanently shuttered, though reports of its impending closure had intensified for months.

Several anonymous officials told The New York Times in May that the isolated facility, located inside Florida’s Big Cypress Natural Preserve, was too costly to maintain.

The facility has attracted significant scrutiny since it was first announced nearly a year ago, on June 19, 2025.

Named after the infamous Alcatraz Island prison in San Francisco, “Alligator Alcatraz” was billed as a temporary facility that would make use of its wetland surroundings as a deterrent for escape.

“If people get out, there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons. Nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide,” said Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier.

When it opened last July, Trump toured the facility personally with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a fellow Republican.

Trump has pushed for the mass deportation of immigrants during his second term, and DeSantis, his former rival in the 2024 presidential race, has sought to deploy state resources to aid that effort.

But the detention centre, located on an abandoned airstrip, faced controversy almost as soon as it started operations.

Indigenous leaders from the Miccosukee and Seminole nations opposed the construction as detrimental to their homes and ceremonial sites in the nearby Everglades.

Lawyers and rights groups, meanwhile, questioned whether the centre’s temporary units would provide adequate shelter from the intense heat, heavy rains and hurricanes typical of South Florida. The hurricane season stretches from June through November.

Over its year of operation, Alligator Alcatraz has been the subject of lawsuits and human rights complaints.

Detainees in the facility described being denied access to lawyers, medical neglect and food filled with worms. The government announced it would transfer detainees out of the facility in May.

“Transferring people out of this cruel facility is an important step, but it does not erase the harm that has already been done,” said Amy Godshall, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

She helped lead a lawsuit against the state and the federal government, alleging a lack of access to legal services in Alligator Alcatraz. The detention centre’s remote location, it claimed, was part of a strategy to cut detainees off from resources.

“The state and federal government must permanently close this facility and commit to never detaining people there again,” Godshall said.

Detention facilities like Alligator Alcatraz have been the subject of protests across the country, with critics denouncing inhumane conditions as the norm.

Alligator Alcatraz was designed to hold up to 3,000 people, and officials claimed that its “aluminium-frame structure” was capable of withstanding wind speeds equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane.

Confirmation that the site’s detainees had all been transferred to other facilities came as the Atlantic hurricane season saw its first named storm of the 2026 season: Tropical Storm Arthur.

The storm is currently in the Gulf of Mexico, where it is expected to move towards Louisiana. (Al Jazeera)

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