DHS Confirms Illegal Immigrants Held at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Moved for Hurricane Season

Illegal immigrants held at a Florida detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” have been moved due to the start of hurricane season, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Thursday.

In an email to an Epoch Times, the spokesperson said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Florida officials “have moved illegal aliens from the soft sided facility.”

“For the safety of the illegal alien detainees, we transferred them to other facilities,” the statement said.

The spokesperson did not elaborate on how many illegal immigrants were transferred from the South Florida Detention Center, located at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport inside Big Cypress National Preserve in Ochopee, Florida. The spokesperson also did not elaborate on where the illegal immigrants were transferred to.

The facility has been praised by President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Trump and former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem toured the facility last July, just days before it was opened.

DeSantis signaled in a recent news conference that the South Florida Detention Facility was meant to be temporary and that it would be used “six months to a year.”

On Thursday, Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said in a news conference that the Florida governor “has always said that the immigration facility is temporary.”

““It was always designed to be temporary. ICE has made a decision,” he said. “They came out with that statement. I did not see that statement prior to it hitting the media.”

Guthrie added that the detention center can withstand Category 1 hurricane-force winds.

“The structures themselves, the I-beam structures, the soft-sided structures can withstand up to 74 mile-an-hour winds,” he said, referring to Category 1 hurricane-strength or tropical storm winds  “There was never ever an intent to leave individuals at that facility, even in a tropical storm,” he added. “We were going to evacuate, we had evacuation plans.”

Guthrie said that DHS has not told Florida to “stand out” and the state would receive more detainees, if necessary.

Since it was unveiled, the facility has drawn lawsuits and criticism from immigration groups. In July 2025, the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the center and claimed there was a lack of access to it and a lack of due process for individuals detained there.

The 2026 hurricane season started on June 1 and lasts until Nov. 30, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which predicted a “below-normal” number of named tropical cyclones in the Atlantic basin.

This week, Tropical Storm Arthur formed in the Gulf of Mexico, prompting tropical storm advisories before it weakened to a low pressure area. Arthur was the first tropical storm of the season in the Atlantic basin and it’s expected to keep weakening as it moves inland over southeastern Texas and western Louisiana, then crosses the Southeast on Thursday and Friday, officials said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.