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'Alligator Alcatraz' migrant jail could halt construction over environmental concerns

Workers sit alongside trailers
Rebecca Blackwell
/
AP
Workers sit alongside trailers as work progresses on a new migrant detention center dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz," at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility in the Florida Everglades, Friday, July 4, 2025, in Ochopee, Fla.

MIAMI — Construction of a makeshift immigrant detention center in the Florida Everglades dubbed “ Alligator Alcatraz ” could be halted indefinitely as a federal judge considered Wednesday whether the hasty development on sensitive wetlands violates environmental laws.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams ordered a two-week halt on additional construction at the site while witnesses continued to testify in the case. The first phase of “Alligator Alcatraz” opened in July and less than 1,000 detainees were being held there as of last week.

The temporary order doesn’t include any restrictions on law enforcement or immigration enforcement activity at the center, which was quickly built two months ago at a lightly used, single-runway training airport. It's designed to eventually hold up to 3,000 detainees in temporary tent structures.

READ MORE: Judge orders temporary halt to construction at Alligator Alcatraz immigration detention center

President Donald Trump toured the detention center last month and suggested it could be a model for future lockups nationwide as his administration races to expand the infrastructure necessary for increasing deportations.

Attorneys and people held there say worms turn up in the food, toilets don’t flush and flood floors with fecal waste, while mosquitoes and other insects are everywhere. Inside the compound’s large white tents, rows of bunkbeds are surrounded by chain-link cages. Detainees are said to go days without showering or getting prescription medicine, and they are only able to speak by phone to lawyers and loved ones. At times the air conditioners abruptly shut off in the sweltering heat.

Who runs ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ Washington or Florida?

The order temporarily barred the installation of any new industrial-style lighting, as well as any paving, filling, excavating, fencing or erecting additional buildings, tents, dormitories or other residential or administrative facilities. The judge is considering whether additional construction should be stopped for good.

Environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe want the judge to issue a preliminary injunction to halt operations and further construction, which they say threatens environmentally sensitive wetlands that are home to protected plants and animals and would reverse billions of dollars’ worth of environmental restoration.

Plaintiffs presented witnesses Wednesday and Thursday who testified that the facility violates the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federal agencies to assess the environmental effects of major construction projects.

Attorneys for the state and federal government have said that although the detention center would be holding federal detainees, the construction and operation of the facility is entirely under the state of Florida, meaning the federal environmental review wouldn’t apply.

The judge last week said the detention facility was, at a minimum, a joint partnership between the state and federal government.

Witnesses describe environmental threats

Witnesses for the environmental groups have testified that at least 20 acres (8 hectares) of asphalt have been added to the site since the Florida Division of Emergency Management began construction. They said additional paving could lead to an increase in water runoff to the adjacent wetlands, spread harmful chemicals into the Everglades and reduce the habitat for endangered Florida panthers.

Amy Castaneda, the Miccosukee Tribe's water resource director, testified Tuesday that nutrient runoff from the detention center could flow into tribal lands, changing vegetation growth. That could lead to fish kills and block humans and wildlife from moving throughout certain areas, she said.

Marcel Bozas, director of the Miccosukee Tribe's fish and wildlife department, said tribe members hunt and fish for subsistence and cultural reasons. Sustained human activity can drive away game animals, like whitetail deer, as well as protected species, like Florida panthers, wood storks, eastern black rails and bonneted bats, he said.

State official says Florida runs center

Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles executive director David Kerner testified that the 1,800 state troopers under his command are authorized to detain undocumented migrants under an agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He said the federal government doesn't tell the state where to detain immigrants, and that the Everglades facility was built to alleviate overcrowding at federal immigration detention facilities, as well as state and county facilities with agreements to hold federal immigration detainees.

Kerner couldn't say how many of the “Alligator Alcatraz” detainees have been charged with violent crimes or whether any other sites besides the middle of the Everglades were considered for possible detention centers.

Attorneys for federal and state agencies last month asked Williams to dismiss or transfer the injunction request, saying the lawsuit was filed in the wrong jurisdiction. Even though the property is owned by Miami-Dade County, Florida’s southern district is the wrong venue for the lawsuit because the detention center is in neighboring Collier County, which is in the state’s middle district, they said.

Williams had yet to rule on that argument.

Facility faces a second legal challenge

In a second legal challenge to “Alligator Alcatraz," a federal judge over the weekend gave the state more time to prepare arguments against an effort to get the civil rights litigation certified as a class action.

U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz in Miami said he will only consider a motion by detainees’ lawyers for a preliminary injunction during an Aug. 18 hearing. He set a Sept. 23 deadline for the state to respond to the detainee’s class action request. The second lawsuit claims detainees’ constitutional rights are being violated because they are barred from meeting lawyers, are being held without any charges, and a federal immigration court has canceled bond hearings.

The lawsuits were being heard as DeSantis′ administration apparently was preparing to build a second immigration detention center at a Florida National Guard training center in north Florida. At least one contract has been awarded for what is labeled in state records as the “North Detention Facility.”

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