The answer could play a key role in a legal battle over the facility’s fate. And it has bigger implications, too.

A group of congressional Democrats is pushing officials at the DHS for more information about the use of the immigration detention facility dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz."

A federal judge handed down a split decision Aug. 18 in a lawsuit brought by detainees at Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz.”

"Putting people in tents in the middle of the Everglades is a great tool to make them give up their cases," said one immigration attorney

Gov. Ron DeSantis has said the location in the rugged and remote Everglades was meant as a deterrent against escape, much like the island prison in California that Republicans named it after. The detention center has an estimated annual cost of $450 million, according to a public database.

A Florida federal judge heard arguments about the conditions at "Alligator Alcatraz" detention center in the Everglades but gave no ruling or injunction.