In another desperate attempt to stop the Trump administration’s deportation agenda, a federal judge this past weekend ordered Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz to close within 60 days after ruling that it failed to conduct an environmental impact review.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration wasted no time appealing the preliminary injunction issued Thursday in Miami by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams. Her decision sides with environmental groups and advocates who claim the facility’s expansion violated environmental laws.
The judge issued the ruling and partly granted a preliminary injunction to the environmental groups Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, joined by the Miccosukee Tribe. They filed a lawsuit in the federal Southern District of Florida to stop operations and expansion at Alligator Alcatraz.
“This was not something that was unexpected,” DeSantis said during a press conference, in a clip aired by WPLG Local 10 News. “This is a judge that was not going to give us a fair shake.”
In response, the state of Florida filed a notice of appeal to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta on Friday. Still, the notice did not detail the arguments the DeSantis administration will make regarding its case.
“This was preordained, very much an activist judge that is trying to do policy from the bench,” the governor said on Friday at an event in Panama City.
“This is not going to deter us,” DeSantis added. “We’re going to continue working on the deportations, advancing that mission.”
The federal government over the weekend also asked Williams to put on hold her ruling ordering the facility to wind down operations, pending an appeal of her decision, ABC News reported. They asked the judge to rule on their request by Monday evening.
Florida’s Attorney General James Uthmeier on Friday said nothing will change for now and told news outlet WINK that the National Environmental Policy Act and federal environmental regulations do not apply to state lands and state facilities.
“Alligator Alcatraz is on solely state lands and it is a state facility,” he said during a call aired by WPLG Local 10 News. “We’re going to continue operating the facility. We believe that it’s a fully lawful facility. This is an effort by environmentalists, by the left, by Democrats and honestly this judge to stall our immigration enforcement efforts. They do not like the deportations.”
Williams’ injunction formalized the temporary halt she had ordered two weeks ago, Fox News Digital reported. The judge’s order prevents further expansion of the immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades and prohibits the administration from bringing new detainees to the facility.
In her 82-page ruling, Williams also ordered the removal within 60 days of temporary fencing, detention-center lighting and equipment such as generators, gas, sewage and other waste services. Detainees currently housed there must be moved out within the time frame.
Over the weekend, Border Czar Tom Homan said that Williams’ ruling is “not going to stop” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.
Under the Big Beautiful Bill, the Trump administration plans to expand detention facilities to 100,000 beds, so immigrants could be sent to other facilities while they await processing and deportation.
“We’ll follow the judge’s order and we’ll litigate and we’ll appeal it. But [the] bottom line is, we’re going to continue to arrest public safety threats and national security threats every day across this country,” Homan said in an exclusive interview with NewsNation, per a report by The Hill’s sister network.
“So, we’re going to keep doing what we’re doing, and these radical judges make these decisions, they may slow us up a bit, but they’re not going to stop us.”
The lawsuit alleges state and federal officials violated the National Environmental Policy Act when constructing Alligator Alcatraz. The federal law requires evaluating potential environmental impacts before such a project can move forward.
The plaintiffs maintain the detention center operation threatens environmentally sensitive wetlands that have protected plants and animals, along with the region’s clean drinking water, and that it would reverse billions of dollars in environmental restoration.
“Plaintiffs have provided extensive evidence supporting their claims of significant ongoing and likely future environmental harms from the project,” the 82-page ruling said.
The state filed a notice of appeal of a preliminary injunction and maintains the facility was under the state of Florida’s jurisdiction. Both state and federal attorneys argued that NEPA did not apply because the facility, although it houses federal immigration detainees, is run by the state.
Florida officials opened the detention facility in July at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, which is built on an airstrip on the edge of the Big Cypress National Preserve.
Florida officials refute claims the facility poses environmental threats, citing the decades-long use of the airport for flight training.
But Williams maintains there is a negative environmental impact, pointing to issues such as additional paving and high-powered lights.
“The project creates irreparable harm in the form of habitat loss and increased mortality to endangered species in the area,” she wrote.
The judge ruled that the detention center was at least a joint partnership between the state and federal government. Williams determined that because the center is subject to federal funding, standards and direction, it is also subject to federal environmental laws, The Washington Examiner reported.
“The light pollution is far worse now than before the camp’s construction,” Williams wrote. “The addition of 800,000 square feet of asphalt paving (with another 1 million planned) increases harmful water runoff relative to the areas previously paved. The frenetic human activity, including vehicular traffic and wastewater from thousands of people daily, was essentially absent prior to the detention camp’s construction.”
Along with Williams’ ruling, a third lawsuit challenging practices at Alligator Alcatraz was filed Friday by civil rights groups who claimed the state of Florida had no authority to run an immigration detention center, ABC News reported.
In a statement supporting the request for a stay on Williams’ order to close the facility, immigration officials said that the Everglades facility’s 2,000 beds were needed due to overcrowding in other facilities.
“Its removal would compromise the government’s ability to enforce immigration laws, safeguard public safety, protect national security, and maintain border security,” said Garrett Ripa, field office director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s enforcement and removal operations in Miami, per ABC News.
Similar migrant detention centers are popping up across red states, with Indiana’s Speedway Slammer, Florida’s Deportation Depot and Nebraska’s Cornhusker Clink under construction, The Daily Wire reported.
Texas’ Lone Star Lockup has already opened its doors on the Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso, Texas, and is slated to become the largest-ever immigration detention facility in the nation.
More than $1 billion is being spent on the detention center to expand its current 1,000-bed capacity to hold up to 5,000 people. The facility will house and process some of the “worst of the worst” criminal illegal aliens, along with immigrants who are currently in removal proceedings or have final removal orders.
