Insights into the infamous ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ during its last moments.

When her son was taken into immigration custody, Yaneisy Fernandez feared the worst. Then she got a call from him inside “Alligator Alcatraz”.

“We had no idea where he was until he called us,” Yaneisy told the BBC. “He said, ‘mom, they took me to the facility of the crocodiles.’ That’s how he put it.”

The temporary immigration detention centre built in Florida’s Everglades has quickly become a polarising symbol of President Donald Trump’s immigration policy.

Now, just two months after it opened, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has said it will be shutting it down, in compliance with a judge’s orders. The process is already under way – border tsar Tom Homan told the BBC during a press conference that only about 50% of the detainees remain.

The BBC spoke to the families of two inmates who were moved in the past month, who say that their loved ones disappeared into the system when they were at their most vulnerable.

That includes Yaneisy’s son Michael Borrego Fernandez, who says he was left bleeding while in serious pain after a medical incident, before being moved to another facility. He is part of an ongoing lawsuit alleging inmates were denied in-person access to their lawyers.