Detainees moved out of "Alligator Alcatraz" over hurricane concerns, ICE says

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has moved detainees out of a controversial detention center in the Florida Everglades known as " Alligator Alcatraz ," an ICE spokesperson told CBS News, citing safety concerns around hurricane season . "For the safety of the illegal alien detainees, we transferred them to other facilities," the spokesperson said in a statement. CBS News Miami reported last month that companies hired by the state of Florida to operate Alligator Alcatraz were notified that the facility was being shut down, with roughly 1,400 remaining detainees expected to be removed. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin later told CBS News the agency didn't have any near-term plans to close the facility. But he acknowledged it faces weather-related "vulnerabilities." "We have plans in case of a natural emergency such as a wildfire or hurricane, to have to be able to bring it down and pull the individuals out," Mullin said. Located on an unused airstrip in the middle of the Everglades, Alligator Alcatraz was opened last year, as the Trump administration sought to rapidly grow ICE's detention capacity in order to surge arrests and deportations. Detainees at the makeshift facility were housed in large air conditioned tents, filled with rows of bunk beds and cells formed by chain-link fences. The administration has cast Alligator Alcatraz as a cost-effective way of housing people accused of being in the U.S. …