A protester from Chicago shows his point of view with his sign in front of the entrance to Alligator Alcatraz located at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport is seen on Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025. A judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to wind down operations at the detention facility. File Photo By Gary I Rothstein/UPI | License Photo
A federal judge ordered Florida and the Trump administration to wind down operations at its Everglades mass detention facility, halting construction and the transfer of new inmates to the facility, colloquially known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”
The preliminary injunction was handed down Thursday by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams, who agreed with the non-profits Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, which filed the lawsuit, accusing the state and federal government of building the immigration detention center in violation of environmental laws as no environmental review was performed.
Williams, appointed by former President Barack Obama, also gave the governments 60 days to remove temporary fencing, lighting fixtures, generators, gas, sewage and other waste and waste receptacles installed at the site. She also ordered that no more detainees be brought to the site.
The ruling is a victory for environmental groups as well as immigration advocates who have been against the construction of the detention facility at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport compound and a major setback for the Trump administration, which has been seeking to rapidly expand its immigration detention capabilities amid its immigration crackdown.
“This is a landmark victory for the Everglades and countless Americans who believe this imperiled wilderness should be protected, not exploited,” Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, said in a statement.
“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.”
In her ruling, Williams states the Florida and federal governments violated the National Environmental Policy Act when they began construction of the site without conducting an environmental review process.
“Here, there weren’t ‘deficiencies’ in the agency’s process. There was no process,” she said in her 82-page ruling. “The defendants consulted with no stakeholders or experts and did no evaluation of the environmental risks and alternatives from which the court may glean the likelihood that the agency would choose the same course if it had done a NEPA-compliant evaluation.”
She continued by stating that since both the federal and state governments have spent billions of dollars in funding preservation and restoration projects in the area, “the court assumes a thorough review of environmental impacts and alternatives could yield meaningful insights.
She also said the non-profits had identified “a myriad of risks” the facility poses to wetlands and species inhabiting the area. The preliminary injunction also includes the Miccosukee Tribe, which lives in the area and had intervened as plaintiffs in the case stating the facility would affect their food and water supply.
“Plaintiffs also proved that runoff and wastewater discharge from the camp risks polluting the water supply in the Miccosukee Reserved Area — where 80% of Tribe members reside — just a few miles downstream from the TNT site, and beyond,” she said.
The facility was made public on June 25, with the environmental groups filing their lawsuit two days later.
“This brutal detention center was burning a hole in the fabric of life that supports our most iconic wetland and a whole host of endangered species, from majestic Florida panthers to wizened wood storks,” Elise Bennett, Florida and Caribbean director and attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said. “The judge’s order came just in time to stop it all from unraveling.”
