"The area around the immigrant detention center, deep in the Everglades, is threatened by a number of environmental hazards like hurricanes, intense heat and even wildfires."
"The day President Trump toured “Alligator Alcatraz,” the sprawling new immigrant detention center in Florida’s Everglades, he quipped that any escapees would need to learn “how to run away from an alligator.”
That danger is exaggerated, experts say. But the vast, subtropical wilderness of the Everglades poses other grave risks to detainees, particularly hurricanes and tropical storms.
The detention site, designed to hold several thousand people, is built mainly of tent-like temporary structures and trailers on swampland that’s roughly a dozen feet above sea level. Over the past 35 years, a tropical storm or hurricane has passed through the region roughly once every two years, on average.
“Say a Cat 5 comes through Central Florida,” said Jason Houser, former chief of staff at United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, referring to a Category 5 hurricane, which whips up winds of more than 150 miles per hour. “You're looking at massive winds, flooding and you're going to get officers killed,” he said.”You're going to get migrants killed.”"
Hiroko Tabuchi and Mira Rojanasakul report for the New York Times August 4, 2025.
SEE ALSO:
Advertisement 
