New Facts: DHS Denies Shutdown Plans Amid Detainee Moves

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said DHS has no near-term plan to shut down the Alligator Alcatraz immigration detention site. “I don’t think we’ve said we’re shutting it down,” he said, while noting the soft-sided Everglades facility is vulnerable to wildfires and hurricanes and that DHS has evacuation plans but wants to keep it as surge capacity.

Meanwhile, companies running the site were told this week it is being shut down, with roughly 1,400 remaining detainees to be moved in the coming weeks and the last expected to leave in June. Florida officials said they have received no formal written shutdown plan or definitive notice from the federal government.

DHS said it is not pressuring Florida to close the facility and is reassessing how it expands detention, shifting from large warehouse conversions that can take 18 to 24 months to using county jails and shuttered local facilities that can be bought, repaired and opened faster. Operating costs have been described as about $1 million a day, with total outlays estimated at more than half a billion dollars to nearly $1 billion.

AI-synthesized from multiple reported sources