Alligator Alcatraz

A federal judge is hearing closing arguments over whether to stop construction indefinitely at an immigrant detention center in the Florida Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.” The judge is considering Tuesday whether the facility violates environmental laws.

Civil rights lawyers say many migrant detainees in Florida's "Alligator Alcatraz" are being barred from meeting regularly with attorneys and are being held in dangerous conditions.

Back in the 1960s, it almost became the world’s largest airport, a six-runway behemoth, many times the size of Kennedy International Airport in New York, for supersonic passenger jets.

They are calling attention to what they describe as inhumane conditions and to demand the release of those held inside by state and federal authorities.

Florida's corrections agency and ICE updated an agreement on handling federal immigration detainees, but they did it more than a month after 'Alligator Alcatraz' opened. The facility built in the Florida Everglades has faced criticism for allegedly restricting detainees' access to attorneys and immigration courts.

Immigration issues are complex. Discussing them is challenging, since key terms are often conflated and confused. Clarifying these terms and their legal implications can help ensure people are talking about the same things – regardless of whether they agree about who should be in the country

A federal judge has ordered a temporary halt to construction of an immigration detention center — built in the middle of the Florida Everglades and dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” — as attorneys argue whether it violates environmental laws.

The Trump and DeSantis administrations have characterized the region as a treacherous swamp where little more than alligators and pythons reside. The Miccosukee call this place home—and have so for generations.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration is apparently preparing to build a second immigration detention center, awarding at least one contract for what's labeled in state records as the "North Detention Facility."

The lawsuit alleges state and federal agencies are violating the landmark National Environmental Policy Act by building the facility in the wetlands of Big Cypress National Preserve. The Miccosukee Tribe has also joined the suit, saying it's built on sacred tribal land.

Federal and state officials in Florida must produce agreements showing which government agency or private contractor has legal authority to detain people or perform immigration officer roles at "Alligator Alcatraz," the immigration detention facility in the Everglades, a federal judge said Monday.

The first Catholic Mass was celebrated at the controversial immigrant detention center in the remote Everglades on Saturday and Church officials are now permitted by state corrections officials to provide Catholic ministry and pastoral care moving forward, Archdiocese of Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski said.