By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, June 18 (Reuters) – Detainees at Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” migrant detention center have been relocated to other facilities, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said on Thursday, citing the arrival of the hurricane season.
Here are some details:
• “As we enter into hurricane season, ICE and the state of Florida have moved illegal aliens from the soft sided facility,” an ICE spokesperson said in an email.
• Florida’s top emergency management official, Kevin Guthrie, said the detention center as such remained open but was “always designed to be temporary.”
• Guthrie said he had not seen ICE’s statement before it was reported by the press.
• ICE had held an average of about 1,400 detainees at the facility from October 1, 2025, through early April of this year, according to statistics from the agency.
• The New York Times reported in May that Florida intended to shut down the controversial federal migrant detention center.
• ICE, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, has been at the heart of President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown that has been condemned by rights groups as violating free speech and due process rights.
• Rights groups say the crackdown has created an unsafe environment, particularly for ethnic minorities, and led to concerns of racial profiling.
• Trump and Republican advocates of the crackdown, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, say it aims to curb illegal immigration and improve domestic security.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Stephen Coates)
By Kanishka Singh | Reuters | © Copyright Thomson Reuters 2026.
