Pivotal week for Alligator Alcatraz: Two lawsuits will determine the future of infamous migrant detention center
A federal judge will decide whether the facility was built illegally and could order it to cease operations, while another magistrate is evaluating whether the center is violating detainees’ right to counsel
A hearing in Miami federal court on Monday marked the beginning of what could be a decisive week for the future of Alligator Alcatraz, the controversial immigration detention center built in the Everglades wetlands, about 35 miles west of Miami, which has become a symbol of the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant crusade.
In the lawsuit, which was filed just over a month ago, lawyers and immigration advocacy groups allege violations of the constitutional rights of detainees at the remote site, whose hearings have been canceled in recent weeks because immigration courts maintain they lack jurisdiction over their cases, leaving them in limbo. The plaintiffs also allege that the detainees lack access to their attorneys and lack conditions for confidential consultations, as required by law. The government, for its part, denies these allegations.
The plaintiffs — the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Americans for Immigration Court, among others — asked Judge Rodolfo Ruiz, who is overseeing the case, to identify an immigration court with jurisdiction over Alligator Alcatraz where they can file bond and other legal petitions for detainees. Government representatives said the Krome immigration processing center, southwest of Miami, will be the designated court. The judge did not immediately comment after Monday’s hearing.
Meanwhile, Thursday is the deadline for a ruling on another lawsuit filed by environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida, which have challenged the legality of the Alligator Alcatraz facility, citing laws requiring impact studies before such projects go ahead.
Environmental groups Friends of the Everglades, Earthjustice, and the Center for Biological Diversity sued the government in late June, alleging that light, noise, traffic, and debris pollution from the site — built in just eight days without public consultation or environmental review — will cause irreparable harm to the sensitive wetland ecosystem that is home to endangered species like the wood stork and the Florida panther. Judge Kathleen Williams, who is presiding over the case, is expected to make a decision before the expiration of an order she issued nearly two weeks ago prohibiting the addition of new fill, paving, or infrastructure to the center — although she allowed it to continue operating.
The Miccosukee, who identify as an Indigenous people native to the Everglades and whose communities are located less than 13 miles from Alligator Alcatraz, joined this lawsuit in mid-July. This tribe claims the Everglades as their ancestral territory, part of their cultural, economic, and spiritual heritage. The detention center is located in Big Cypress National Preserve, a federally protected area of high environmental sensitivity that the Miccosukee consider sacred, with numerous ceremonial grounds, burial grounds, and meeting places. It is also a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Site.
Alligator Alcatraz was erected in late June using canvas tents, portable toilets, and FEMA trailers on the tarmac of Dade-Collier Airport, west of Miami, and began operating in early July following a visit by President Trump. Florida declared a state of emergency over immigration, which it says allowed it to move quickly to build the center. The facility is managed by the state’s Division of Emergency Management. Governor Ron DeSantis said late last month that more than 100 people had been deported from the site.
Dade-Collier Airport is the remnant of an ambitious, unfinished project from the 1960s called Everglades Jetport, planned to be the largest airport in the region but canceled after a fierce legal dispute with Miami environmentalists. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeir and DeSantis have cited the 11,000-foot runway as a selling point for building the detention center there because it allows for swifter deportations. The attorney general, the governor, and the president have also cited the native alligators as a deterrent to escape attempts.
Detainees have reported poor sanitary conditions, including blocked toilets and limited access to showers or drinking water, electrical failures, poor nutrition, and the spread of disease, and claimed that authorities coerce them into agreeing to deportation. Images from inside the center show cells that resemble wire cages with bunk beds.
The Everglades is a complex ecosystem that serves as a natural reservoir and regulates floods and droughts. The so-called “River of Grass” carries water from Lake Okeechobee, north of the peninsula, to Florida Bay, through marshes and swamps, supporting rich biodiversity and considered essential for the water supply of millions of people. But this natural flow has been affected since the last century by agriculture and urbanization, and restoration efforts have been underway for decades, supported by billions of dollars allocated by the federal government.
In joining the lawsuit, the Miccosukee Tribe said that while the government has extensively assisted with restoration efforts, the new center threatens that progress and is located on a site that is “home to numerous tribal villages and sacred sites.”
“The environmental impacts have not been studied, and the transportation of detainees is carried out along the same routes used by our school buses,” the tribe said in a statement. “It is our constitutional duty to conserve the Everglades and ensure the health, well-being, and rights of our people. We have no choice but to pursue legal action to compel the demolition of this facility.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) called the lawsuit “meritless” and said it overlooks that the land has already been developed. “The number of detainees at Alligator Alcatraz constantly fluctuates as detainees are deported and transferred to [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] detention centers for further removal proceedings. ICE’s goal is to remove illegal aliens from the country as quickly as possible. Despite a history of court stay orders, DHS is working expeditiously to move these aliens from detention centers to their final removals,” it said in an email.
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