If hurricane season is the reason, why build Alligator Alcatraz in July? | Opinion

Has Alligator Alcatraz finally been emptied out?

In typical Florida-government fashion, it’s unclear. The Herald and other news outlets reported Wednesday that inmates at the immigration detention center have been moved to other facilities. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has not clarified how many people have been moved, only that they were relocated for “safety” reasons as “as we enter into hurricane season,” according to the Herald.

Wait a minute: for “safety” reasons?

The 2025 hurricane season was well under way when Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration built the center within days last July. Migrant advocates warned of the risks of putting up a tent-and-trailer structure in a remote area of the Everglades where there’s little infrastructure. State and federal officials scoffed at those concerns.

Perhaps they have grown more humane over the 11 months, or, more likely, they are obfuscating. The facility was supposed to be temporary, and officials have said it’s on the verge of closing.

Secrecy and lack of transparency have been the hallmark of Alligator Alcatraz. It is projected to cost about $1 billion — money Florida could have used for something else or saved before the state faces projected budget deficits in coming years. The federal government is supposed to reimburse part of those costs, but the state has received only a fraction of it, the Herald reported this month.

Getting information about what happens inside the center — from costs to the actual number of people housed there and their living conditions — has often required investigative work by journalists. That’s unacceptable: The state built Alligator Alcatraz with tax dollars.

DeSantis said on Tuesday he doesn’t believe the facility is empty, but he wouldn’t be surprised if that happens soon. Last month, U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, a Central Florida Democrat, toured the detention center and told reporters: “It is apparent that they are winding down this facility.”

If Frost is correct, what’s next? Don’t expect DeSantis or the Trump administration to do any post-mortems (there were several reports of inhumane and unsanitary conditions) other than to declare victory. But DeSantis owes Floridians an explanation about whether the site will return to what it was.

To build Alligator Alcatraz, his administration seized an idle air strip, known as the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, from Miami-Dade County. If the site is emptied, the state will have to clean up its mess: the pavement, lights, fences and other structures that environmental groups suing the state have argued disturb wildlife and the Everglade’s fragile ecosystem.

“They built a secret gulag in the Everglades without even pulling one permit, without conducting any environmental review, without complying with environmental law, and now they hope that they can slink away in the middle of the night without explaining to anyone what they did, why they did it or how they propose to clean up the mess that they’ve made,” Paul Schwiep, a lawyer representing the group Friends of the Everglades, said on a Wednesday conference call with journalists.

The uncertainty and mixed messages over whether Alligator Alcatraz still holds detainees feel intentional. Using hurricane season as a reason to move people out “strains credulity,” as Noelle Damico at the social justice organization The Workers Circle said in a Wednesday statement.

There was no transparency and accountability when Alligator Alcatraz opened. The public must demand that now as the end of this misguided experiment appears in sight.