A controversial state-run immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades may soon be empty — even as legal battles continue over its future.
According to an email exchange shared with The Associated Press, Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, told South Florida Rabbi Mario Rojzman on August 22 that detainee numbers are rapidly declining.
“We are probably going to be down to 0 individuals within a few days,” Guthrie wrote in the message, which was confirmed by both Rojzman and the executive assistant who sent the original email.
Guthrie’s agency has overseen the construction and operation of the facility, which was built just two months ago as part of President Donald Trump’s renewed push to detain and deport individuals in the U.S. illegally.
Once capable of housing up to 3,000 detainees, the detention center—dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz”—held nearly 1,000 individuals at its peak. But according to Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), only 300 to 350 detainees remained during his visit last week.
News of the facility potentially winding down came less than a week after U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams issued a federal order to shut down the site within 60 days, citing environmental concerns and legal violations. Williams ruled that once detainees are transferred out, infrastructure such as fencing, lighting, and generators must also be removed.
The state of Florida has appealed the decision, while the federal government has requested the judge pause her order pending the outcome of that appeal. Federal attorneys argued the site’s thousands of beds are urgently needed due to overcrowding at other detention facilities in Florida.
However, the Miccosukee Tribe and environmental groups—whose lawsuit prompted the ruling—oppose that request. They argue the Everglades site was built in violation of federal environmental protections and is not essential, particularly since Florida plans to open a second detention center in North Florida, nicknamed “Deportation Depot” by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Judge Williams has not yet ruled on whether to stay her own shutdown order.
The center, constructed on a lightly used training airport in the remote Everglades, officially opened on July 1 after Florida signed more than $245 million in contracts for construction and operations.
But the lawsuits surrounding the facility have raised serious allegations. Civil rights attorneys claim it has seen “severe problems” previously “unheard-of in the immigration system.” These include:
Detainees held for weeks without charges
Individuals disappearing from ICE’s online locator
No initial custody or bond determinations
Worms in food, non-flushing toilets, flooding floors with fecal waste
Mosquito and insect infestations
The environmental lawsuit, filed by multiple organizations and the Miccosukee Tribe, alleges the site threatens protected wetlands and wildlife and undermines decades of taxpayer-funded restoration efforts in the Everglades.
As of Wednesday, the Biden administration had not responded to new inquiries, and Guthrie’s spokesperson did not immediately comment on the report of the facility’s dwindling detainee population.
If Judge Williams’ order stands, “Alligator Alcatraz” would officially close by late October—a symbolic and political flashpoint in the broader immigration debate now dominating both state and federal policy discussions.
