The state of Florida’s controversial “Alligator Alcatraz” detention facility holding federal immigration detainees could be empty within a matter of days, according to state officials.
“We are probably going to be down to 0 individuals within a few days,” reads an August 22 email from Florida Division of Emergency Management Executive Director Kevin Guthrie obtained by the Associated Press.
The admission came in a message sent to a South Florida rabbi related to providing chaplaincy services at the facility, which was swiftly constructed on a disused training air strip. The rabbi’s executive assistant who sent the original email to Guthrie confirmed its veracity to the AP.
The Independent has contacted the Florida Division of Emergency Management for comment.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said at a press conference on Wednesday federal officials were deporting and transferring detainees out of the facility.
“Our role is to provide more space for processing and detention leading to deportation,” the governor said. “We are not the ones actually removing them from those facilities.”
The facility has capacity for about 2,000 detainees, though state officials initially said they hoped to hold as many as twice that level to make up for overcrowded detention facilities elsewhere.
The prison held about 900 people in mid-July, according to members of Congress who visited. The population dwindled to around 300 by last week, according to a Florida congressman.
Last week, a federal judge overseeing an environmental lawsuit against Alligator Alcatraz issued an order halting the expansion of the controversial facility and ordering officials to begin its closure, holding that detainees were expected to be out of the facility within 60 days, at which point Florida would begin dismantling the prison camp. The state has appealed.
“DHS is complying with this order and moving detainees to other facilities,” the U.S. Department of Homeland told The Independent in a statement. “We will continue to fight tooth-and-nail to remove the worst of the worst from American streets.”
A July analysis found that among the more than 700 people being held in the facility at the time, one-third had no criminal record, while 250 had immigration violations, typically considered civil offenses.
The detention center was built rapidly two months ago at a lightly used, single-runway training airport in the middle of the rugged and remote Everglades. State officials have signed more than $245 million in contracts for building and operating the facility, which officially opened July 1.
Earlier this month, the state of Florida announced plans to open another immigration detention facility, this one dubbed “Deportation Depot,” at the site of a former prison.
