Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Immigration Detention Center Remains Open After Court Ruling

The infamous Florida immigrant detention center known as ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ will remain open after a federal appeals court overturned a lower judge’s decision to close it. The ruling, issued on Tuesday, marks the latest development in a months-long legal battle over the facility.

The center was constructed in the Everglades last summer by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ administration to house immigrants pending deportation after the Department of Homeland Security requested additional detention space. Since then, it has faced widespread criticism for both its living conditions and environmental impact.

Reports have highlighted severe issues, including:

• Mosquito infestations
• Flooding
• Poor medical care
• Inadequate food and water access
• Allegations of abuse, such as detainees being shackled in small cages in direct sunlight—a practice referred to as “the box”

In March, I reported on these conditions, noting that thousands of people have been detained at the facility despite ongoing complaints. Last month, two U.S. senators launched an investigation into reported abuses, including the use of “the box.” A spokesperson for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which operates Alligator Alcatraz, denied the allegations, calling them “false.”

In recent weeks, the center drew renewed attention after attorneys representing detainees told a judge that guards had assaulted and pepper-sprayed protesters following a phone service shutdown. This occurred less than a week after a federal judge ordered expanded legal access at the facility.

Environmental groups have spent nearly a year fighting to shut down Alligator Alcatraz to protect the Everglades. The facility was built on a little-used airfield adjacent to the Big Cypress National Preserve, a federally protected wetland area.

“People get out, there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons.”

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier made this remark in a social media video posted in June 2023.

That same month, environmental groups sued federal and state officials to halt the project, arguing that construction proceeded without an environmental review or public comment, violating the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Their filings included concerns about the facility’s impact on local ecosystems, including:

• Increased risk of vehicle strikes on Florida panthers
• Disruption of bats’ nighttime foraging due to light pollution

“Alligator Alcatraz will go down in history as a boondoggle to taxpayers and a flagrant assault on the Everglades,” the groups stated in their legal challenges.

Florida and Trump administration officials countered that NEPA only applies to federal agencies, arguing that the facility was state-operated and state-funded. They noted that the state has spent at least $390 million to run the center. However, in August 2023, a federal judge in Miami ruled that Alligator Alcatraz “exists for the sole purpose of detaining and deporting those subject to federal immigration enforcement” and ordered it to close within 60 days. The state of Florida appealed, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit blocked the closure, allowing the facility to remain open while the appeal proceeds.