The number of people being held at an immigrant detention center in the Florida Everglades has decreased sharply and may soon be down to zero, despite the state’s recent insistence that the 2,000 beds at the facility were desperately needed as part of President Trump’s crackdown on unauthorized immigrants.
Kevin Guthrie, the executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, wrote in an email on Friday that the detention center, known as Alligator Alcatraz, was “probably going to be down to 0 individuals within a few days.”
The email, obtained by The New York Times, was sent to the office of a South Florida rabbi in response to interfaith leaders who had asked whether they could minister to detainees inside the remote center.
The state has repeatedly declined to say how many detainees it was housing at the center, which opened in early July at a disused airfield. The email is the first sign that the center is not operating at or near capacity. It comes six days after a federal judge ordered that the facility be shut down.
Rabbi Mario Rojzman of the Beth Torah Benny Rok Campus, a synagogue in North Miami Beach, did not share the email with The Times, but he confirmed its authenticity. He said in a statement that Mr. Guthrie was responding to a request from him and from other members of an interfaith clergy group working with Miami People Acting for Community Together, a nonprofit organization.
A spokeswoman for the Florida Division of Emergency Management did not respond immediately to a request for comment on the situation, nor did she respond last week to a question about how many detainees were being held at the Everglades center.
Last week, a federal judge ordered that no more immigrant detainees be sent to the center, and that it be emptied of detainees — and its fencing, lighting and generators be removed — within 60 days. The judge, Kathleen M. Williams of the Federal District Court in Miami, ruled that the state and federal governments had failed to consider potential environmental harms before building the center.
The state has appealed that ruling and asked that the ruling be stayed, or kept from taking effect, while it pursues its appeal.
Patricia Mazzei is the lead reporter for The Times in Miami, covering Florida and Puerto Rico.
The post ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Detention Center May Be Empty Within Days appeared first on New York Times.
