Immigrants without legal status in Florida and other hurricane-prone states say the fast-intensifying Atlantic storm season now poses a dual threat: powerful winds and the prospect of detention. Shelters that once offered safe refuge—schools, hospitals and county emergency centres—are viewed with suspicion after the Department of Homeland Security in January dropped such sites from its list of ‘protected areas’ where immigration enforcement was previously discouraged. The anxiety follows a surge in federal and state enforcement capacity. Since January, hundreds of police departments—most of them in Florida and Texas—have entered 287(g) agreements allowing officers to perform certain ICE functions. The National Guard is authorised to back U.S. Customs and Border Protection at disaster scenes, while FEMA funding is underwriting new detention facilities including the Everglades complex dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.” During July floods in Texas, more than 2,100 personnel from 20 state agencies worked alongside CBP, underscoring the blurred lines between disaster relief and immigration policing. Florida’s legislature added to the pressure in February by criminalising entry into the state by undocumented migrants, although a judge later halted the measure. Traffic-stop checkpoints on evacuation routes, police-staffed shelter doors and ID requirements at FEMA recovery centres leave many families weighing whether to brave a storm or risk arrest. “They can go where they want—there is no limit,” said Maria, a 50-year-old farmworker in Apopka who used to flee hurricanes by driving to a public shelter. With federal assurances absent, counties are trying to adapt. Alachua County is broadcasting multilingual alerts and promises not to demand identification at its shelters, yet officials concede they cannot bar ICE. Community groups such as Apopka’s Hope Community Center are organising alternative safe houses, door-to-door welfare checks and rapid-response hotlines. Advocates warn that, unless enforcement is clearly suspended during disasters, fear will keep residents from evacuation routes and recovery aid just as the most dangerous stretch of the season begins.