On a late summer day in 2025, Yaneisy Borrego tried to locate her son Michael in the U.S. immigration system. The online locator said he was at a facility in San Diego. His attorney called. The facility said they had no one by that name. "Call ICE," they told him.
The attorney called ICE. "Call the California facility," ICE said.
This went on for a week.
When they finally reached Michael, he'd already been deported to Mexico.
He's Cuban.
The Disappearing
Michael Borrego Fernandez is one of approximately 1,200 people who have vanished from Immigration and Customs Enforcement's online database after being held at a detention facility in the Florida Everglades.
The facility has a name: the Glades County Detention Center. But everyone calls it by the nickname Florida Republicans gave it: "Alligator Alcatraz."
In July 2025, the Miami Herald obtained two rosters showing approximately 1,800 men detained there. By late August, reporters cross-referenced those names with ICE's online locator system:
- 800 detainees: No records at all
- 450 detainees: Result says "Call ICE for details" (a vague notation that could mean anything)
- Only 550 detainees: Still traceable in the system
That's two-thirds of the facility's population that disappeared into administrative limbo.
As Thomas Kennedy of the Florida Immigrant Coalition told Democracy Now!:
"What we're seeing at Alligator Alcatraz is basically a new model of immigration detention, where a state-run facility is operating as an extrajudicial black site, completely outside of the previous models of immigration detention in this country."
Why People Disappear
The answer lies in a jurisdictional loophole.
Alligator Alcatraz is state-run, not federal. Florida operates the facility through the Florida Department of Emergency Management. But here's the catch: The state of Florida never signed the federal legal agreements that give states authority to detain immigrants on behalf of ICE.
Why not?
Because signing those agreements would trigger a National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) environmental study. The facility sits on ecologically protected land with a dark-sky designation. An environmental review would likely shut it down.
So Florida runs it anyway—without federal authorization.
The result is predictable: People detained there don't show up in public databases. And when people don't show up in databases, they effectively disappear.
Attorneys describe it as "administrative disappearances."
What Happens Inside
Michael Borrego's story illustrates what this disappearance means in practice.
While detained at Alligator Alcatraz, he developed a severe hemorrhoid condition requiring surgery. He was transferred to Kendall Hospital, where he underwent the procedure. Three days later—still recovering—he was sent back to Alligator Alcatraz.
At the facility, according to his family's account:
- He was denied adequate post-surgical care
- He was refused even basic pain medication
- He was then transferred to Krome Detention Center in Miami
- Then transferred again to California
- Then deported to Mexico—before his scheduled bond hearing
None of these hospitalizations appear in any official records. The Florida Department of Emergency Management doesn't acknowledge them. The hospital doesn't record them. Yet advocates documented ambulances going in and out of the facility constantly—sometimes more than a dozen per day.
Other reported cases include:
- A detainee who had exploratory heart surgery one week before detention, then suffered a ruptured kidney while at the facility
- Multiple cardiac incidents requiring emergency hospitalization
- Systematic denial of medical care for chronic conditions
Thomas Kennedy explained the pattern:
"These hospitalizations are not recorded nor acknowledged by the state of Florida, the Florida Department of Emergency Management, which administers the facility, nor by the hospital itself, even though we saw and we recorded and documented ambulances going in and out of the facility constantly."
The Legal Black Hole
In a normal federal detention facility:
- Detainees appear in ICE's case locator system
- Attorneys know who to call to set up interviews
- Private attorney-client calls are standard procedure
- Bond hearings are scheduled and honored
- Transfers are documented
At Alligator Alcatraz, none of this applies.
As Shirsho Dasgupta of the Miami Herald explained:
"Because this was a state-run facility, there were jurisdictional issues... issues surrounding legal access between attorneys and clients. And even when they were transferred out of this facility, attorneys told me: 'We don't know who to call. We don't even know whether the person we're calling is the right individual to set up a discussion with my client.'"
The practical effect:
- Due process denied: Detainees deported before scheduled hearings
- Legal recourse denied: Attorneys can't reach their clients
- Accountability denied: No records of medical incidents or hospitalizations
- Transparency denied: Families can't locate detained loved ones
It's a system designed to make people invisible.
The Money Trail
Florida has spent over $200 million setting up and operating Alligator Alcatraz.
Governor Ron DeSantis has made immigration enforcement central to his political brand, positioning Florida as "a leader in the states which are cracking down on violators of immigration laws."
President Trump praised the facility:
"I think Florida has done a great job by building it. Whether it's Alligator Alcatraz or anything else you want to call it, it's an amazing facility for what it is. It's not a hotel. It's not supposed to be a hotel."
In September 2025, a federal judge ordered the facility to wind down operations due to reports of abuse and legal violations. Florida complied.
Then a federal appeals court issued a stay on that order, allowing operations to continue.
As of this writing, the facility's status remains unclear. What's clear is that Florida spent a quarter-billion dollars to create a detention system that operates outside normal legal oversight.
Precedent and Pattern
Alligator Alcatraz isn't an isolated incident. It's part of a broader pattern in immigration enforcement where accountability mechanisms simply don't exist.
Consider these documented cases from other ICE facilities:
Forced hysterectomies: In 2020, a whistleblower at Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia reported that detained women were subjected to unnecessary gynecological procedures, including hysterectomies performed without informed consent. (Office of Inspector General Report, OIG-21-03)
Deaths from medical neglect: Between 2003 and 2023, at least 214 people died in ICE custody, many from treatable conditions. (American Civil Liberties Union, Deadly Neglect report)
Sexual assault: A 2017 DHS Inspector General report found that ICE failed to prevent and address sexual abuse in detention facilities, with thousands of allegations uninvestigated.
Children with cancer deported: In 2025, ICE deported children receiving chemotherapy, including a 10-year-old girl from El Salvador whose treatment was interrupted mid-course. (Congressional testimony, June 2025)
But Alligator Alcatraz represents something new: a state deliberately operating outside federal oversight, creating a facility where people can be detained without appearing in any public database.
Thomas Kennedy's assessment:
"It's making what was already a terrible system somehow even worse."
The Response
When asked about the missing detainees, Florida's government declined to comment, referring questions to ICE.
ICE declined to comment, despite multiple requests from the Miami Herald.
The families keep calling. The attorneys keep trying to reach their clients.
The ambulances keep arriving.
And approximately 1,200 people who were held at a facility in the Everglades have effectively vanished from the immigration system.
What This Means
The existence of Alligator Alcatraz raises fundamental questions about the U.S. immigration system:
Can states operate detention facilities without federal authorization?
Apparently yes. Florida has demonstrated that a state can build a facility, spend hundreds of millions of dollars, detain nearly 2,000 people, and operate entirely outside the federal legal framework that's supposed to govern immigration detention.
What happens to due process when detainees don't appear in databases?
It evaporates. Bond hearings are missed. Attorneys can't reach clients. Families can't locate loved ones. Deportations happen before scheduled court dates.
Who is accountable when people disappear?
No one. Florida says "ask ICE." ICE says "ask Florida." Meanwhile, medical incidents aren't recorded, hospitalizations aren't acknowledged, and roughly 1,200 people have vanished from the system.
Is this legal?
That question is being litigated. In August 2025, the ACLU filed suit over what they called the "legal black hole" at Alligator Alcatraz. The case continues.
The Bigger Picture
Immigration detention in America has always operated with less oversight than criminal detention. ICE facilities aren't subject to the same standards as prisons. Detainees—who haven't been convicted of crimes—often have fewer rights than convicted criminals.
But Alligator Alcatraz represents a new frontier: detention without documentation.
When people don't appear in databases, they effectively cease to exist in the legal system. They can't exercise rights they technically have because no one—not their families, not their attorneys, not advocacy organizations—can locate them.
Thomas Kennedy calls this the "new model of immigration detention." If he's right, we're looking at a system where states can:
- Build detention facilities on protected land
- Avoid environmental review by refusing federal agreements
- Operate outside federal oversight and accountability
- Make detainees effectively invisible in government databases
- Ignore medical needs and legal protections
All while spending hundreds of millions in public money.
Where Are They Now?
As of September 2025, approximately 1,200 people who were held at Alligator Alcatraz remain missing from ICE's public locator system.
Some have been deported—like Michael Borrego, sent to Mexico despite being Cuban.
Some are presumably in other detention facilities—though their attorneys and families can't confirm which ones.
Some may have been released—though there's no public record.
And some may still be at Alligator Alcatraz itself, despite reports the facility was winding down operations.
We don't know. The databases don't tell us. The state won't say. ICE won't comment.
That's the point.
When a facility can operate outside normal oversight, when detainees don't appear in public databases, when jurisdictional confusion makes accountability impossible—people simply disappear.
Not into the Everglades surrounding the facility.
Into an administrative black hole where due process, legal representation, and basic human rights effectively cease to exist.
UPDATE (September 2025): Following the Miami Herald investigation, multiple advocacy organizations have filed Freedom of Information Act requests seeking records on all detainees held at the Glades County Detention Center. The Florida Immigrant Coalition has established a hotline for families seeking information about missing loved ones.
ICE and the Florida Department of Emergency Management continue to decline comment.
Sources & Further Reading
Primary Sources:
- Miami Herald investigation: "Hundreds of Alligator Alcatraz detainees drop off the grid after leaving site"
- Democracy Now! interview with Shirsho Dasgupta and Thomas Kennedy (September 25, 2025)
- ACLU lawsuit: Florida Immigrant Coalition v. Florida Department of Emergency Management (filed August 2025)
Background:
- DHS Office of Inspector General reports on ICE detention conditions (2019-2025)
- Congressional testimony on immigration detention abuses (2020-2025)
- Florida Immigrant Coalition documentation: floridaimmigrant.org
Related Coverage:
- "Unprecedented and Not Normal": ACLU Sues over Legal Black Hole at "Alligator Alcatraz" ICE Jail (Democracy Now!, August 20, 2025)
- Amnesty International: "Torture & Enforced Disappearances" at Florida's ICE Jails