Alligator Alcatraz’ Faces Shutdown Amid Lawsuits Over Abuses, Disappearances & Environmental Damage

The controversial Everglades detention center—dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz”—faces mounting legal challenges and community opposition as federal officials attempt to keep it open despite a judge’s ruling ordering its shutdown. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams found that Florida had no authority to operate the facility and directed that the population be reduced within 60 days, with fencing, lighting, and generators removed once detainees are transferred. Civil rights groups and the Miccosukee Tribe, whose lawsuit exposed the project’s environmental and legal violations, hailed the decision as a step toward accountability.

Still, the Department of Homeland Security immediately asked Judge Williams to pause her order. ICE officials argued the 2,000-bed site is “badly needed” because other detention centers are overcrowded. Garrett Ripa, ICE’s Miami director, claimed closure “would compromise the government’s ability to enforce immigration laws, safeguard public safety, protect national security, and maintain border security.” Advocates reject these talking points, insisting the facility was illegal from the start and violates human rights.

Civil rights lawyers paint a grim picture of what they call a secretive black site: “Lawyers often cannot find their clients, and families cannot locate their loved ones inside ICE’s vast detention system.” They say detainees are being denied bond hearings, disappearing from the agency’s locator, and prevented from contacting attorneys. “Detainees without counsel have been cut off from the normal channels of obtaining a lawyer,” attorneys explained.

Conditions inside “Alligator Alcatraz” are described as cruel, with flooding, mosquito infestations, and people left exposed to the elements as punishment. At least 100 migrants have already been deported from the site, some coerced into signing removal papers without legal advice. One lawsuit described the abuses as “severe problems… previously unheard-of in the immigration system.”

Environmental groups also stress that the site threatens fragile wetlands, undoing decades of costly restoration efforts. Despite these dangers, Governor Ron DeSantis is moving ahead with a second detention project dubbed “Deportation Depot.”

For immigrant rights advocates, the Everglades facility embodies Trump’s accelerated deportation machine. As one lawyer warned, “This is not about safety or security—it’s about building prisons in the swamp and disappearing people from their families and communities.”

Link: TampaBay