Appeals court panel stops order to wind down operations at 'Alligator
Alcatraz' in Everglades
[September 05, 2025]
By MIKE SCHNEIDER
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A federal appeals court panel on Thursday put on
hold a lower court judge’s order to end operations indefinitely at the
immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades dubbed “Alligator
Alcatraz.”
The three-judge panel in Atlanta decided by a 2-1 vote to stay the
federal judge’s order pending the outcome of an appeal, saying it was in
the public interest. The ruling will allow the facility to continue
holding detainees for the time being.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams in Miami issued a preliminary
injunction last month ordering operations at the facility to be wound
down by the end of October, with detainees transferred to other
facilities and equipment and fencing removed.
Williams’ decision was issued in response to a lawsuit brought by
Friends of the Everglades, the Center for Biological Diversity and the
Miccosukee Tribe, who accused the state and federal defendants of not
following federal law requiring an environmental review for the
detention center in the middle of sensitive wetlands.
“This is a heartbreaking blow to America’s Everglades and every living
creature there, but the case isn’t even close to over,” Elise Bennett, a
senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said Thursday.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration in late June raced to build
the facility on an isolated airstrip surrounded by wetlands to aid
President Donald Trump’s efforts to deport people in the U.S. illegally.
The governor 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.
Trump toured the facility in July and suggested it could be a model for
future lockups nationwide as his administration pushes to expand the
infrastructure needed to increase deportations.
DeSantis said on social media Thursday, after the appellate panel issued
its ruling, that claims that the facility's shutdown were imminent were
false.
“We said we would fight that. We said the mission would continue,”
DeSantis said. “So Alligator Alcatraz is in fact, like we've always
said, open for business.”
The Department of Homeland Security called Thursday's ruling “a win for
the American people, the rule of law and common sense.”
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Trucks come and go from the "Alligator Alcatraz" immigration
detention center in the Florida Everglades, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025,
in Collier County, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
“This lawsuit was never about the environmental impacts of turning a
developed airport into a detention facility,” DHS said in a
statement. "It has and will always be about open-borders activists
and judges trying to keep law enforcement from removing dangerous
criminal aliens from our communities, full stop.”
The state and federal government defendants appealed Williams'
ruling, asking that it be put on hold. The state of Florida said in
court papers this week that it planned to resume accepting detainees
at the facility if the stay was granted.
Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, said
the case was far from over.
“In the meantime, if the DeSantis and Trump administrations choose
to ramp operations back up at the detention center, they will just
be throwing good money after bad because this ill-considered
facility — which is causing harm to the Everglades — will ultimately
be shut down,” Samples said.
The federal government claims that it isn’t responsible for the
detention center since it hasn’t spent a cent to build or operate
the facility, even though Florida is seeking some federal grant
money to fund a portion of it. Florida claims that the environmental
impact statement required by federal law doesn’t apply to states.
In Thursday's ruling, the majority on the appellate panel largely
accepted those arguments, saying Williams erred by assuming
statements federal officials had made about reimbursing the state
weren't the same as a final decision about funding the facility.
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