Florida balks at order to shutter 'Alligator Alcatraz'

MIAMI (CN) — A federal judge has ordered the shutdown of the South Florida migrant detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” which the state immediately appealed.

In a 82-page decision late Thursday night, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams told state and federal officials to transfer inmates and remove generators, gas, lighting and sewage fixtures from the hastily built site in the middle of the Everglades within 60 days.

“Every Florida governor, every Florida senator, and countless local and national political figures, including presidents, have publicly pledged their unequivocal support for the restoration, conservation, and protection of the Everglades. This order does nothing more than uphold the basic requirements of legislation designed to fulfill those promises,” Williams wrote.

Additionally, Williams, an Obama appointee, said fencing needs to be removed so indigenous leaders can access sacred lands.

Williams was critical of the haste officials — including the executive director of the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, David Kerner — showed in selecting the environmentally sensitive site.

“Here, there weren’t ‘deficiencies’ in the agency’s process. There was no process,” Williams wrote.

“The state defendants also insisted that the detention camp’s remoteness was an important consideration,” she said. “But aside from their use of adjectives, neither the state nor Director Kerner could explain why such a place needs to be in the Everglades.”

Florida’s attorney general immediately filed an appeal with the 11th Circuit of Appeals.

“The deportations will continue until morale improves,” DeSantis spokesman Alex Lanfranconi said in response to the judge’s ruling.

Two months ago, in response to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, DeSantis and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier proposed the idea of a detention center in the Everglades and used emergency powers to acquire the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, a small runway surrounded by the Big Cypress National Preserve and Everglades National Park.

Within days, trucks carrying prefabricated housing, generators, security lighting and fill dirt entered the area and workers hastily set up tents and trailers to house those arrested by immigration authorities and state law enforcement.

Trump visited the facility on July 1 — the day before the first detainees arrived — and told reporters, “We’re going to teach them how to run away from an alligator if they escape prison.”

Since then, environmental activists, indigenous tribes, Democratic state lawmakers and members of Congress have decried the detention center as inhumane and detrimental to the ecosystem, pointing to reports of flooding, pest infestations, sewage backups and light pollution.

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