A top Florida official says the controversial state-run immigration detention facility in the Everglades will likely be empty in a matter of days, even as Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration fights a federal judge's order to shutter the facility dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" by a late October deadline. That's according to an email exchange shared with The Associated Press. Florida Division of Emergency Management Executive Director Kevin Guthrie says in an email to a South Florida rabbi on Aug. 22 in regard to providing spiritual care at the facility that "we are probably going to be down to 0 individuals within a few days."

Lawyers seeking a temporary restraining order against an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades say that "Alligator Alcatraz" detainees have been barred from meeting attorneys. They also say that the detainees are being held without any charges and that federal immigration courts have canceled bond hearings. A virtual hearing in federal court in Miami was held Monday over the lawsuit. Critics have condemned the facility as a cruel and inhumane threat to detainees, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican state officials have defended it as part of the state's aggressive push to support President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration.