In January 2026, a claim resurfaced online that approximately 1,200 detainees were "missing" from the so-called Alligator Alcatraz, the Florida migrant detention center touted by Trump as the "new standard" for immigration facilities.
"BREAKING NEWS 1200 detainees at alligator alcatraz are missing and their records have been wiped," read one Instagram post (archived) on Jan. 28.
While it is true that according to a series of investigations by the Miami Herald, the whereabouts of two-thirds of more than 1,800 men detained at "Alligator Alcatraz" during July 2025 were unknown, January 2026 posts claiming these findings were "breaking news" were misleading. The Herald published its findings in a series of investigations in summer 2025.
We first broke down the Herald's investigations on Sept. 25, 2025, when a number of social media posts (archived, archived, archived) circulated the claim. The Jan. 28 Instagram post above was a repost of a video (archived) originally shared by TikTok account @rark.muffalo on Sept. 23, 2025:
The Herald did not claim to independently verify whether family members could not locate the 1,200 detainees, as the posts above claimed, but rather used two detainee rosters the outlet obtained to inform its reporting. It was unclear whether any significant developments took place since we first published our assessment of the investigations, but we reached out to the Herald reporters who reported the stories seeking any relevant information, and will update this story if we receive a response.
On July 14, the Herald first published the names of more than 700 detainees housed at "Alligator Alcatraz." The story noted:
The list — made public for the first time here — was shared with the Department of Homeland Security and the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which oversees the site. Neither disputed its accuracy.
On Aug. 19, the Herald published another story based on a second list the outlet obtained of 1,400 detainees' names. The reporters did not list each name on the roster as they did with the July 14 story. In the second story, reporters compared the two datasets and searched names on the detainee locator system for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and found that two out of five immigrants on the list of detainees from the outlet's July 14 story were moved elsewhere. The Aug. 19 story read:
More than 40% of the 750 detainees in the initial list were sent not out of the country but to other ICE facilities, the Herald found. Another 40% were still at the detention center.
Alligator Alcatraz detainees often did not appear in ICE's locator system, the Herald found, and the fate of the rest — around 150 detainees — is unclear. Some of them were likely still at Alligator Alcatraz but others may have been deported.
The numbers in both data sets are snapshots in time, and fluctuate as detainees enter and leave the facility.
By Sept. 16, reporters Ben Wieder and Shirsho Dasgupta used the two detainee lists the Herald obtained in July and August to determine that, "As of the end of August, the whereabouts of two-thirds of more than 1,800 men detained at 'Alligator Alcatraz' during the month of July could not be determined by the Miami Herald."
They then broke the numbers down. According to their findings, 800 detainees showed no record in the online database for ICE, while more than 450 listed no location and only instructed the user to "Call ICE for details."
We wrote to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security — which oversees ICE — as well as the Florida Division of Emergency Management — which oversees operations at "Alligator Alcatraz" — seeking information on detainees reportedly not accounted for. DHS responded: "FALSE. No one is unaccounted — including at Alligator Alcatraz — in ICE's online detention locator system. This is yet another hoax about the facility."
While the Herald did not reveal where it had obtained the two lists of detainees, the news site did use public records to reportedly verify the accuracy of the lists. In an email to Snopes, Wieder wrote:
Broadly speaking, the detention center — which is technically run by the state of Florida — has reportedly made it difficult for attorneys to reach their detained clients, therefore allegedly violating detainees' First and Fifth amendment rights, according to a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The Sept. 16 story, while dependent on these two detainee rosters for evidence, also presented testimony from family members of two detainees who had reportedly gone missing.
One man, a 53-year-old Guatemalan detained at "Alligator Alcatraz" whose family asked that his name not be included for fear of retribution, didn't show up for a hearing, according to his attorney. A government attorney told the man's attorney that he'd accidentally been sent to Guatemala instead of being transferred to a different detention center ahead of the hearing, as planned.
Communication from another man, Cuban national Michael Borrego Fernandez, went silent after ICE transferred him to another facility in California. His family described the situation as "psychological torture," as they were worried about his health, given a recent surgery. They then found him in Mexico, where ICE had deported him without notice.
In sum, while Snopes had not independently verified that each name on the purported lists the Miami Herald used to determine that two-thirds of the detainees at "Alligator Alcatraz" during July 2025 were missing from ICE's locator system, evidence exists from real cases that detainees apparently have gone missing for stretches of time, or are not where ICE said they were. Therefore, the possibility exists that other detainees reportedly missing from the ICE system were also deported or sent to other unknown facilities without their family's or attorney's knowledge.