‘Ask ICE what’s changed’: Florida emergency director reacts to ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ relocations

NORTH MIAMI, Fla. — Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie commented Thursday on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s decision to move all detainees from ”Alligator Alcatraz”, citing hurricane concerns.

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Guthrie was in North Miami for a hurricane preparedness roundtable at Florida International University’s Biscayne Bay campus.

The transfer comes despite Guthrie and other officials previously stating the immigration detention facility could survive a weak storm.

“So you would need to ask ICE what’s changed,” Guthrie said. “At the end of the day, the governor has always said that the immigration facility is temporary.”

He added, “It was always designed to be temporary. ICE has made a decision. They came out with that statement. I did not see that statement prior to it hitting the media.”

Guthrie maintained that the structures on the site are still sturdy enough to survive a storm.

“The structures themselves, the I beam structures, the soft-sided structures can withstand up to 74 mile-an-hour winds, that is a tropical storm, (Category 1) hurricane,” Guthrie said. “There was never ever an intent to leave individuals at that facility, even in a tropical storm. We were going to evacuate, we had evacuation plans.”

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He previously said that the facility could handle a Category 2 storm.

Guthrie added that the site will stay as it is for now and could still receive detainees again in the future.

“At this point in time, we have not been told to stand down, so we are still in a posture to receive detainees again, if that’s what the Department of Homeland Security wants to do,” he said.

The makeshift detention center, deep in the Everglades, was constructed quickly last summer and has received sharp criticism from several environmental groups who later filed a lawsuit arguing for its closure.

Sky 10 flew over the facility earlier this week, showing structures are still in place but not as busy as they’ve been in the past.

So far, neither Guthrie nor DHS have commented on exactly where those detainees from Alligator Alcatraz have been transferred.

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