Judge orders Alligator Alcatraz shut down in 60 days, says no more new detainees
A federal judge on Thursday barred the DeSantis and Trump administrations from bringing new detainees to Alligator Alcatraz and demanded the state scale down operations at the immigration detention facility within 60 days.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams, in her 82-page ruling, prohibited the state and federal governments from sending more immigrants to the detention center, built on an airstrip on the edge of the Big Cypress National Preserve. She also told the state to remove all generators, gas, sewage, lighting, fencing and other waste items over the next nine weeks that helped transform the airstrip into a detention center, eventually rendering the site uninhabitable.
Williams said she expects the continued transfer of detainees out of Alligator Alcatraz to allow the eventual phasing out of equipment to be done “in a safe, humane, and responsible manner.”
Williams’ order — a preliminary injunction that will hold as the case continues to be litigated — comes in a lawsuit filed by environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe arguing that the state and federal governments cut important corners when erecting the site in a matter of days. The Tribe and environmental groups had requested that the judge grant a preliminary injunction shutting down the site until and unless a proper environmental review is conducted, citing “irreparable” harm the facility could cause to the Everglades.
Williams wrote that the facilities at Alligator Alcatraz were likely to have consequences for the Tribe and the surrounding environment, including endangered species like the Florida Panther. She said runoff from 800,000 new square feet of paving would flow southeast into tribal territory, and lighting that could be seen for up to 30 miles at night would interrupt the ecosystem for the Florida bonneted bat.
She also said it was clear the state and federal governments made no effort to conduct any study of the site’s impact before seizing the airstrip from Miami-Dade County and hastily building a detention center big enough to hold thousands of detainees.
In her order, Williams, an Obama appointee, quoted President Harry Truman’s address at the 1947 dedication of the Everglades National Park. Williams said that since the construction of the airstrip was abandoned and the Big Cypress National Preserve was established, political leaders have all supported the preservation of the River of Grass.
“Every Florida governor, every Florida senator, and countless local and national political figures, including presidents, have publicly pledged their unequivocal support for the restoration, conservation, and protection of the Everglades. This Order does nothing more than uphold the basic requirements of legislation designed to fulfill those promises,” Williams wrote.
The order — issued by the same judge who earlier this year struck down a new Florida immigration law and held Attorney General James Uthmeier in contempt of court — is a blow to the Trump and DeSantis administrations, which have hailed the detention center as a gold standard example that other states should follow.
But its impact may not be as sweeping as it could have been, with the federal government having moved hundreds of detainees out of the facility in the wake of the temporary restraining order Williams issued two weeks ago, stopping any new construction. At the end of July, there were roughly 1,400 detainees held at the detention camp. By the middle of this week, that number was below 400, and the state had announced plans to open a new immigration detention center in north Florida.
Still, the state immediately filed a notice to appeal the decision with the United States Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. “The deportations will continue until morale improves,” said Alex Lanfranconi, communications director for Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The plaintiffs celebrated the decision Thursday night. Friends of the Everglades, one of the environmental groups behind the lawsuit, called the ruling a “landmark victory for the Everglades.”
“It sends a clear message that environmental laws must be respected by leaders at the highest levels of our government — and there are consequences for ignoring them,” said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, in a statement.
Elise Bennet, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, described the decision as a “huge relief for the millions who love the Everglades.”
‘If it walks like a duck’
Williams’ order isn’t the final word, but it punctuates a tumultuous first chapter for the detention center, setting the precedent for states to create their own immigration detention centers with pithy names, like the Speedway Slammer in Indiana.
As Trump, Noem and DeSantis toured the silver cages and dark brown bunk beds at the opening of Alligator Alcatraz on July 1, protesters gathered outside the facility. Many were Miccosukee Tribe members who denounced the environmental impact and loathed that the local community had not been consulted ahead of the detention center’s construction.
“We will always stand up for our culture, our sovereignty, and for the Everglades. When it comes to our homeland, there is no compromise, ” said the tribe’s chairman, Talbert Cypress.
For the government, the site was a selling point: Gov. Ron DeSantis and President Donald Trump talked up alligators as a natural deterrent for escape-minded detainees. The plan outraged Democrats, with several congress members introducing the “No Cages in the Everglades Act” to defund the Department of Homeland Security’s funding of the site. Democratic Congresswoman Frederica Wilson said Thursday’s decision to shut down the facility was “ABOUT DAMN TIME!
Thursday’s ruling followed days of testimony in Williams’ downtown Miami courtroom. Lawyers presented different experts to speak about the long-term damage the facility will have on the Everglades ecosystem. They presented an expert who testified that the continual expansion of the site could lead to habitat loss for the Florida panther.
The federal and state governments have maintained that there is no evidence of environmental harm. The federal government also distanced itself from the construction and operation of the facility, arguing the Everglades facility is funded and operated by the state without any federal government involvement — a key issue given the federal law, the National Environmental Policy Act, at the heart of the lawsuit.
But Williams wasn’t convinced, writing in her ruling that “the project was requested by the federal government; built with a promise of full federal funding; constructed in compliance with ICE standards; staffed by deputized ICE Task Force Officers acting under color of federal authority and at the direction and supervision of ICE officials; and exists for the sole purpose of detaining and deporting those subject to federal immigration enforcement.”
She continued: “if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck, then it’s a duck.”
Impact on the environment has not been the only issue surrounding the controversial site. Immigration advocacy groups have also challenged the legality of the facility. In another federal lawsuit filed in Miami, civil rights attorneys said detainees were being held at the site without due process and a lack of confidentiality when detainees spoke to their attorneys
U.S. Southern District of Florida Judge Rodolfo A. Ruiz II ruled the due process allegation moot after the federal government designated the Krome North Processing Center as having jurisdiction over the facility. He ordered the remaining claims in the case be moved to the Middle District of Florida, which oversees Collier County — something a spokesman for Florida’s attorney general noted Thursday night.
“Just this week, a judge in the same district as Judge Williams refused to hear a case because the Southern District of Florida was the improper venue for suits about Alligator Alcatraz,” spokesman Jeremy Redfern wrote on X. “Once again, she oversteps her authority, and we will appeal this unlawful decision.”
Williams noted Ruiz’s decision in her ruling, but said the two cases were “entirely distinct.”
This story was originally published August 21, 2025 at 9:26 PM.