The start of peak Atlantic hurricane season is colliding with the Trump administration’s rapid expansion of immigration enforcement, heightening anxiety among Florida’s undocumented residents who fear detention if they evacuate to public shelters or apply for disaster aid. Shelters, schools and hospitals—once considered safe zones—are now viewed with suspicion after the Department of Homeland Security in January scrapped a Biden-era policy that limited enforcement in such “protected areas.” Since January, hundreds of police departments have signed 287(g) agreements allowing local officers to perform certain federal immigration duties. Florida’s Division of Emergency Management is overseeing new detention centers, including one dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Everglades, while some FEMA personnel and National Guard units have been reassigned to support Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. DHS has not issued clear guidance on whether it will suspend immigration operations during hurricanes or other disasters. The manpower push behind the crackdown is growing. ICE says a summer recruitment blitz—with military-style posters and sign-on bonuses of up to $50,000—has drawn roughly 100,000 to 110,000 applications in less than two weeks; four in ten applicants report military or law-enforcement backgrounds. Separately, the Pentagon is inviting civilian employees to volunteer for six-month details with ICE or CBP, offering salaries ranging from about $26,000 to $192,000 and deployment on 96-hour notice. Community groups and some county governments are scrambling to reassure residents that local shelters will not require identification, translating storm alerts into Spanish and Haitian Creole and organising informal wellness checks. Advocates warn, however, that the growing overlap between disaster response and immigration policing may leave people choosing between physical safety and the risk of detention, eroding trust just as severe weather threats intensify.