First migrants arrive at Florida's ‘Alligator Alcatraz' detention center, official says

Video captured by NBC6 showed a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) bus driving into the detention center on Thursday morning.

The first group of immigrants has arrived at a new detention center deep in the Florida Everglades that officials have dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” a spokesperson for Republican state Attorney General James Uthmeier told The Associated Press.

“People are there,” Press Secretary Jae Williams said, though he didn’t immediately provide further details on the number of detainees or when they arrived.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management posted a photo of white vans on X on Thursday: "The first group has arrived at Alligator Alcatraz."

“Next stop: back to where they came from,” Uthmeier said on the X social media platform Wednesday. He’s been credited as the architect behind the Everglades proposal. Requests for additional information from the office of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which is building the site, had not been returned early Thursday afternoon.

Video captured by NBC6 South Florida showed a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) bus driving into the detention center on Thursday morning.

At least two other vans and an SUV all marked as U.S. Customs and Border Patrol followed the bus into the facility.

NBC6 South Florida's cameras also caught several vans with government license plates driving in and out of the area in the early morning hours.

Those smaller vehicles were similar to the ones U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has previously used to transport migrants.

Food trucks and other vehicles were also seen entering the facility, which is expected to be able to hold around 3,000 detainees upon completion, late Wednesday.