All Detainees At Alligator Alcatraz Removed Ahead Of Hurricane Season 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced on Thursday that all detainees at Florida’s controversial Alligator Alcatraz detention center have been removed from the site ahead of hurricane season. 

The Hill reports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, provided few details on how many detainees were transferred, where they were transferred to, and whether this marks a temporary or permanent closure of the much-maligned facility. 

“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. 

It’s like they had a bet on how often they could write the phrase “illegal alien” in a statement. 

Alligator Alcatraz opened in Florida last summer and almost immediately became a source of controversy. It’s located in an alligator-infested swampland, which is where it gets its messed-up namesake. There have been several reports about how bad the conditions are in the facility, with detainees complaining of floors being covered in wastewater, worms in the food, and being punished when they try to seek legal counsel. It should come as no surprise that Alligator Alcatraz has been the subject of several lawsuits filed by environmental and civil rights groups. 

“Transferring people out of this cruel facility is an important step, but it does not erase the harm that has already been done,” Amy Godshall, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who filed a lawsuit against the state and the federal government over the facility, told AP. “The state and federal government must permanently close this facility and commit to never detaining people there again.” 

Immigration activists are suspicious of the stated reason for the transfer, given that Alligator Alcatraz opened last year during hurricane season. 

“That’s a nonsense excuse because they opened in the middle of the worst part of hurricane season last year,” Arianne Betancourt, a community advocate at the nongovernmental group The Workers Circle, who has connected detainees with pro bono attorneys, told AP. 

The future of Alligator Alcatraz has been in question for just about the entirety of its short existence. Last year, a federal judge ordered the facility to be shut down, citing environmental concerns, but an appeals court put the injunction on hold. 

Even before the removal of the detainees, there were talks that the facility would be closing down due to both the litany of lawsuits and how expensive it had become to operate. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters this week that the detention facility was only supposed to be temporary. 

“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.”

Look, the entire existence of these ICE detention facilities is inherently horrific, but if there’s any light to be seen, it’s that, hopefully, one of the most horrific of the facilities is finally winding down. 

SEE ALSO:

5 Disturbing Allegations Coming Out Of ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Everyone Should Know

Alligator Alcatraz To Shut Down Over Environmental Impact