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MIAMI — <\/span>All detainees at an immigration detention center in an isolated airstrip in the Florida Everglades, known as \u201cAlligator Alcatraz,\u201d<\/a> have been transferred to other facilities, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said, citing concerns related to the hurricane season.<\/p>\n The South Florida Detention Center has been praised by President Donald Trump<\/a>. But its conditions have been harshly criticized<\/a> by l awyers, families and human rights groups<\/a>, who have persistently denounced the mistreatment of detainees since the center opened 11 months ago, during the Atlantic hurricane season.<\/p>\n DHS said that all detainees at the Florida state-run facility had been transferred but did not specify how many or where they were taken. Nor did it say whether the facility would close permanently or only temporarily.<\/p>\n “For the safety of the illegal alien detainees, we transferred them to other facilities,\u201d department spokesperson Lauren Bis said in an emailed statement. <\/p>\n The hurricane season spans six months, from June through November. The detention facility opened on July 3, 2025, one month after the start of that year\u2019s hurricane season, which concluded without any storms making landfall in Florida. It has been operating since then.<\/p>\n Shortly after ICE announcement, the National Hurricane Center reported on Wednesday that the first tropical storm o<\/a> f the 2026 hurricane season had formed off the Texas coast.<\/p>\n Detainees at the facility have talked about their difficulty accessing lawyers<\/a>, and have described poor physical conditions<\/a>, including worms in the food<\/a>, toilets that don\u2019t flush, flooding floors with fecal waste, and mosquitoes and other insects everywhere. <\/p>\n Surrounded by alligator-filled swamps in the Florida Everglades, “Alligator Alcatraz\u201d was built by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 administration in a matter of days, and Trump toured it on July 1, 2025, just two days before it was opened. <\/p>\n The Florida Division of Emergency Management, the main state agency responsible for its operation, did not immediately respond to an information request from The Associated Press on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Since the facility opened, immigration advocates said the tents were never safe or humane to hold people. Federal and state officials, nonetheless, had said that it was prepared to withstand hurricanes.<\/p>\n \u201cTransferring people out of this cruel facility is an important step, but it does not erase the harm that has already been done,\u201d said Amy Godshall, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who filed a lawsuit against the state and the federal government alleging a lack of access to legal representation for detainees. \u201cThe state and federal government must permanently close this facility and commit to never detaining people there again.\u201d<\/p>\n