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David Zimmermann


NextImg:Email reveals 'Alligator Alcatraz' migrant detention facility likely to be empty within days

A top Florida official said the state-run immigration detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz” will likely be empty within a few days after all detainees are deported or transferred to other facilities, according to an email shared with the Associated Press.

“We are probably going to be down to 0 individuals within a few days,” Florida Division of Emergency Management Executive Director Kevin Guthrie wrote in an Aug. 22 email to South Florida Rabbi Mario Rojzman. The message was related to an inquiry about providing religious programming at the Everglades facility, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.

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The Washington Examiner contacted the Florida agency, which runs Alligator Alcatraz in collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security, for comment.

Work progresses on a new migrant detention facility dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz," at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility in the Florida Everglades, on July 4, 2025, in Ochopee, Florida.
Work progresses on a new migrant detention facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility in the Florida Everglades, on July 4, 2025, in Ochopee, Florida. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

Guthrie wrote the email one day after a federal judge ordered Alligator Alcatraz’s closure within 60 days in response to a legal challenge. Environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe opposed the project due to concerns about the facility’s construction and operation harming the wetlands ecosystem. The judge sided with the plaintiffs, ordering Florida to wind down the site’s operations.

Florida’s government, led by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), appealed the ruling. The federal government also asked the judge to pause the order pending the appeal.

Reports that Alligator Alcatraz will no longer house detainees come nearly two months after the facility opened. President Donald Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and DeSantis attended the grand opening in early July, along with other federal and state officials.

ALLITERATIVE IMMIGRATION DETENTION CENTERS REFLECT TRUMP’S BRANDING

The South Florida facility was estimated to cost $450 million to operate annually, with more than $245 million in state-signed contracts for building and operating the site. It has a projected capacity of up to 5,000 beds and is located next to a single-runway training airport, useful for deporting illegal immigrants from the swampy environment.

Alligator Alcatraz began a trend in which Trump’s DHS partners with Republican states to expand detention space run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. At least four immigration detention centers with their own nicknames have followed, including north Florida’s “Deportation Depot.”