Photo credit: Aljazeera
The administration of United States President Donald Trump has announced that all immigration detainees have been transferred out of a Florida detention facility known as Alligator Alcatraz, effectively shuttering the controversial facility.
Al Jazeera reports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Wednesday that everyone being held in the state-run facility had been transferred out, citing concerns about the start of the Atlantic hurricane season.
“For the safety of illegal alien detainees, we transferred them to other facilities,” department spokesperson Lauren Bis said.
The facility has attracted significant scrutiny since it was first announced last year.
Named after the infamous Alcatraz Island prison in San Francisco, “Alligator Alcatraz” was billed as a temporary facility that would make use of its wetland surroundings as a deterrent for escape.
But the detention centre, located on an abandoned airstrip, faced controversy almost as soon as it started operations.
Indigenous leaders from the Miccosukee and Seminole nations opposed the construction as detrimental to their homes and ceremonial sites in the nearby Everglades.
Lawyers and rights groups, meanwhile, questioned whether the centre’s temporary units would provide adequate shelter from the intense heat, heavy rains and hurricanes typical of South Florida.
Detainees in the facility said they were being denied access to lawyers, medical neglect and food filled with worms. The government announced it would transfer detainees out of the facility in May.
