{"id":2001,"date":"2026-06-18T20:01:38","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T20:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=2001"},"modified":"2026-06-18T20:01:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T20:01:38","slug":"alligator-alcatraz-remains-open-floridas-emergency-director-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=2001","title":{"rendered":"Alligator Alcatraz remains open, Florida\u2019s emergency director says"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s top emergency management official, whose job is to ensure Floridians are prepared for hurricanes, said Thursday that he did not know why federal immigration authorities said this week that immigrants at Alligator Alcatraz were being relocated due to hurricane season. He said the detention center was still open.<\/p>\n

Read more Inside a new luxury Miami airport terminal: suites, caviar, privacy \u2014 for a price<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Kevin Guthrie, the executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which oversees operations at Alligator Alcatraz, said he did not see the statement issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement before its release. He said he learned about it only through the media and has not been instructed by the federal government to pause operations at the Everglades detention center.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, why was the hurricane issue listed? I can\u2019t answer that question for you,\u201d he told a Miami Herald reporter at a roundtable event at Florida International University\u2019s Biscayne Bay campus highlighting hurricane preparedness.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll have to kick back to ICE as to why they utilized that as their statement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Guthrie\u2019s comments highlight, yet again, the divergent messages and disorganized policies of the state and federal governments regarding Alligator Alcatraz. Since the site opened last summer, state and federal officials have kicked questions about the site\u2019s operations back and forth \u2014 the state saying federal immigration officials control the site, and federal officials pointing back at the state.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

ICE\u2019s statement this week that it was moving detainees out of the facility because of \u201csafety\u201d due to \u201churricane season\u201d had come as a happy surprise to advocates \u2014 even as they pointed out that the state said it was well-prepped to deal with any storms at the site when the detention center was erected last summer in the middle of hurricane season.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Guthrie on Thursday maintained that the detention center\u2019s \u201csoft-sided structure can withstand up to 74 miles-per-hour winds, which is a tropical storm or Category One hurricane.\u201d He said the detention center has always had an evacuation plan and that there was never \u201can intent to leave individuals at that facility, even in a tropical storm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Miami workers wanted a bigger space. They got it \u2014 and a \u2018vibe check\u2019 at door<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Guthrie also told reporters that federal immigration officials have \u201cdrawn down the individuals that are there,\u201d but the state had not received any instructions to stop operations.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point in time, we have not been told to stand down, so we are still in a posture to receive detainees,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It is unclear from what state and federal officials are saying whether the detention center is empty. Over the past weeks, family members and advocates have said that immigrants being held there had been moved to other Florida immigration facilities, such as Krome North Processing Center and Miami FDC, or transferred out of state.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Gov. Ron DeSantis, in a press conference on Tuesday, said he would be surprised if everyone in the detention center had been moved. He told reporters that when he was briefed on Monday, there were still immigrants being held there.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As to what happens to the seized Miami-Dade County airstrip where the state erected Alligator Alcatraz once all the immigrants being held there are moved out, Guthrie said it depends on what the Department of Homeland Security wants to do with the facility.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWe stand by and await further instructions on what to do with that facility,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Read more If hurricane season is the reason, why build Alligator Alcatraz in July? | Opinion<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Florida emergency director says he did not know why ICE was citing hurricane season as the issue for moving detainees from Alligator Alcatraz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2000,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-immigration"],"yoast_head":"\nAlligator Alcatraz remains open, Florida\u2019s emergency director says - Florida Moving Chronicle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=2001\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alligator Alcatraz remains open, Florida\u2019s emergency director says - 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