A federal judge in Miami halted construction at the recently erected federal immigration center in the Florida Everglades, nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz” by the Trump administration.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams on Thursday halts any new construction at the facility for two weeks following a lawsuit by environmental groups and the area’s Miccosukee Tribe of Indians.
“We’re pleased that the judge saw the urgent need to put a pause on additional construction, and we look forward to advancing our ultimate goal of protecting the unique and imperiled Everglades ecosystem from further damage caused by this mass detention facility,” Eve Samples, the executive director of Friends of the Everglades, said in a statement after the ruling.
Conservation groups sued the state and federal government on June 27, four days after Florida began setting up what Gov. Ron DeSantis called a “makeshift” detention center next to Everglades National Park and within Big Cypress National Preserve.
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“This lawsuit ignores the fact that this land has already been developed for a decade,” Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to NOTUS. “It is another attempt to prevent the President from fulfilling the American people’s mandate for mass deportations. These environmental activists—and activist judge—don’t care about the invasion of our country facilitated by the Biden administration, but the American people do.”
At a hearing this week about the environmental consequences of the detention center, witnesses said the facility has already begun to disrupt wildlife. Construction at the detention center, located on the site of a former airstrip, has paved over 20 acres of wetlands.
Due to the lack of existing infrastructure, including electricity and plumbing, the detention center runs on portable generators. Water and waste must be trucked in and out daily. Along with construction traffic, attorneys raised concerns about possible spills and vehicle collisions, which are common causes of death for the area’s critically endangered panthers.
Florida state Rep. Anna Eskamani, who testified at the hearing in support of the conservation groups, told The Washington Post the order is “a necessary and welcome step in stopping a project that never should have been approved in the first place.”
“This facility is not only a threat to one of the most environmentally sensitive regions in the country. It is also a glaring example of how far the State of Florida will go to criminalize immigrants and ignore the long-term health of our natural resources,” Eskamani said in a statement.
In addition to the environmental hearing this week, separate hearings were held after the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of detainees who reported they did not have access to attorneys at the facility.
Earlier this week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced that 1,000 beds would be added to the Miami Correctional Facility in Indiana to “house some of the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens arrested by ICE.”
The detention center’s nickname, “Speedway Slammer,” quickly drew backlash from both the town of Speedway, an Indianapolis suburb home to the Indianapolis 500, and IndyCar officials who asked that the brand’s intellectual property not be used in DHS messaging.
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