Feds fight to keep 'Alligator Alcatraz' open amid legal battle as 3rd
challenge is filed
[August 26, 2025]
By MIKE SCHNEIDER
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The federal government over the weekend asked a
judge in Miami to put on hold her ruling ordering the winding down of an
immigration detention center built by the state of Florida in the
Everglades wilderness and nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz,” pending an
appeal of her decision.
Attorneys for the Department of Homeland Security said in their request
for a stay that U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams' order last week,
if carried out, would disrupt the federal government's ability to
enforce immigration laws. They asked the judge to rule on their request
by Monday evening.
The request came as a third lawsuit challenging practices at the
facility was filed Friday by civil rights groups who claimed the state
of Florida had no authority to run an immigration detention center.
In a statement supporting the request for a stay, Garrett Ripa, field
office director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement's enforcement
and removal operations in Miami, said that the Everglades facility's
2,000 beds were badly needed since detention facilities in Florida were
overcrowded.
“Its removal would compromise the government’s ability to enforce
immigration laws, safeguard public safety, protect national security,
and maintain border security,” Ripa said.
The environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe, whose lawsuit led to
the judge's ruling, opposed the request. They disputed in a court filing
Monday that the Everglades facility was needed, especially as Florida
plans to open a second immigration detention facility in north Florida
which Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has dubbed, “Deportation
Depot.” During a tour of the Everglades facility last week, U.S. Rep.
Maxwell Frost was told that only a fraction of the detention center’s
capacity was in use, between 300 to 350 detainees, the Democratic
congressman from Orlando said in a declaration on behalf of the
environmental groups.
“Defendants’ arguments for a stay are hyperbolic, disingenuous,
inconsistent, untimely, unsupported by any competent evidence, and
contrary to the facts,” the environmental groups' filing said.
The judge said in her order that she expected the population of the
facility to decline within 60 days through the transferring of the
detainees to other facilities, and once that happened, fencing, lighting
and generators should be removed. She wrote the state and federal
defendants can’t bring anyone other than those who are already being
detained at the facility onto the property.
Environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe had argued that further
construction and operations should be stopped until federal and state
officials complied with federal environmental laws. Their lawsuit
claimed the facility threatened environmentally sensitive wetlands that
are home to protected plants and animals and would reverse billions of
dollars spent over decades on environmental restoration.
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Work progresses on a new migrant detention facility dubbed
"Alligator Alcatraz," at Dade-Collier Training and Transition
facility in the Florida Everglades, on July 4, 2025, in Ochopee,
Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
The detention center was quickly built two months ago at a lightly
used, single-runway training airport in the middle of the
Everglades. State officials signed more than $245 million in
contracts for building and operating the facility, which officially
opened July 1.
President Donald Trump toured the facility last month and suggested
it could be a model for future lockups nationwide as his
administration races to expand the infrastructure needed to increase
deportations.
A second lawsuit also was filed by civil rights groups last month
against the state and federal governments over practices at the
Everglades facility, claiming detainees were denied access to the
legal system. Another federal judge in Miami last week dismissed
parts of the lawsuit which had been filed in Florida's southern
district and then moved the remaining counts against the state of
Florida to the neighboring middle district.
Civil rights groups last Friday filed a third lawsuit over practices
at the facility in federal court in Fort Myers, asking for a
restraining order and a temporary injunction that would bar Florida
agencies and their contractors from holding detainees at “Alligator
Alcatraz.” They described “severe problems” at the facility which
were “previously unheard-of in the immigration system.” Detainees
were being held for weeks without any charges, they had disappeared
from ICE's online detainee locator and no one at the facility was
making initial custody or bond determinations, the civil rights
groups said.
“Lawyers often cannot find their clients, and families cannot locate
their loved ones inside ICE’s vast detention system,” the civil
rights attorneys said. “Detainees have been prevented from accessing
attorneys in numerous ways. Detainees without counsel have been cut
off from the normal channels of obtaining a lawyer."
Immigration is a federal issue, and Florida agencies and the private
contracts hired by the state have no authority to operate the
facility, the civil rights groups argued in asking that their
lawsuit be certified as a class action.
The civil rights attorneys described harsh conditions at the
facility, including flooding, mosquitoes, lack of water and exposure
to the elements as punishment. At least 100 people already have been
deported from the facility, including several who were pressured to
sign voluntary removal forms without being able to consult with
attorneys, they said.
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