Judge Orders ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Detention Center in Florida to Shut Down for Now

A federal judge on Thursday ordered that no more immigrant detainees be sent to a center in the Florida Everglades, and that much of the facility be dismantled. The ruling rebuked the state and federal governments for failing to consider potential environmental harms before building the facility, known as Alligator Alcatraz.

The judge gave both branches of the government 60 days to move out existing detainees and begin to remove fencing, lighting, power generators and other materials. The order also prohibits any new construction at the site.

The decision is a major legal setback for the detention center, the nation’s first state-run facility for federal immigration detainees, which has faced several lawsuits and numerous complaints about poor conditions and other problems. The state immediately filed a notice saying that it intended to appeal.

Judge Kathleen M. Williams of the Federal District Court in Miami found that the state and federal governments had violated a federal law that requires an environmental review before any major federal construction project. Judge Williams partly granted a preliminary injunction sought by environmentalists and the Miccosukee Tribe, whose members live in the area. The detention center is surrounded by protected lands that form part of the sensitive Everglades ecological system.

The detention center presents risks to wetlands and to communities that depend on the Everglades for their water supply, including the Miccosukee, Judge Williams found.

“The project creates irreparable harm in the form of habitat loss and increased mortality to endangered species in the area,” she wrote.

Her ruling is preliminary, as the case will continue to be litigated. The state is expected to ask that the ruling be stayed, or kept from taking effect, as it pursues its appeal.

The Trump administration had argued that a review under the National Environmental Policy Act did not apply because while the center houses federal immigration detainees, it is run by the state. At the same time, the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis argued that its authority to operate the detention center came from an agreement with the federal government delegating some immigration enforcement powers to Florida.

In her ruling, Judge Williams said federal immigration enforcement is the “key driver” of the detention center’s construction. Because it is subject to federal funding, standards and direction, it is also subject to federal environmental laws, she concluded.

In making that determination, the judge wrote, the court will “‘adhere to the time-tested adage: If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck, then it’s a duck.’”

Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has positioned Florida as particularly aggressive on immigration enforcement, pushing the boundaries of state authority to deputize state and municipal police officers to run detention centers. His administration plans to open a second immigration detention center in an empty state prison west of Jacksonville.

Even before Judge Williams ruled, Mr. DeSantis had said he expected the ruling to go against his administration.

“It’s pretty clear we’re in front of a judge who is not going to give us a fair shake on this,” he said on Tuesday.

The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment late on Thursday.

In her 82-page ruling, Judge Williams acknowledged the government’s “significant” interest in enforcing immigration laws. “Immigration is at the forefront of national and state politics: As the swell of people seeking refuge and opportunities in our nation steadily increases, the government is under a corresponding pressure to respond and regulate,” she wrote.

But she added that the state and federal governments “offered little to no evidence” why building a detention center in the Everglades was necessary.

“What is apparent, however,” she wrote, “is that in their haste to construct the detention camp, the state did not consider alternative locations.”

Friends of the Everglades, one of the environmental groups that sued, compared the victory to when activists defeated plans for a major jetport on the same site 56 years ago.

“This is a landmark victory for the Everglades and countless Americans who believe this imperiled wilderness should be protected, not exploited,” Eve Samples, the group’s executive director, said in a statement. “It sends a clear message that environmental laws must be respected by leaders at the highest levels of our government — and there are consequences for ignoring them.”

Judge Williams, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, sounded more and more frustrated with the state and federal governments as a recent hearing on the preliminary injunction question dragged out over four days. At one point, she told lawyers for the state that she intended to accept an invitation from James Uthmeier, the state’s attorney general, who had said in a television interview that judges hearing lawsuits against the facility should “come visit.”

The state’s lawyers expressed surprise and said they knew of no official invitation; Judge Williams backed down but accused Mr. Uthmeier of “puffery.”

In June, the judge held Mr. Uthmeier, a Republican, in civil contempt of court for defying her order in another case that blocked enforcement of a provision in a new state immigration law. Mr. Uthmeier has appealed.

In the environmental case, the state put a single witness on the stand: Dave Kerner, the executive director of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, which includes the Florida Highway Patrol. He testified that the facility was “absolutely” state run.

Other listed witnesses for the state and federal governments submitted written declarations instead of testifying before the judge. Santiago Fuentes, assistant director of field operations at the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Miami, wrote that Florida “has complete discretion on deciding who is detained” at the Everglades facility.

Lawyers for the Miccosukee Tribe argued that the government had trampled on tribal rights by failing to coordinate with tribal leaders who live near and hunt around the detention center or to consider potential harm to their lands.

Environmental activists and scientists who testified for the plaintiffs said that runoff from the detention center would pollute surrounding wetlands, and that the construction could reduce the habitat of threatened and endangered species, including the Florida panther.

In her ruling, Judge Williams cited President Harry Truman’s dedication of Everglades National Park in 1947, in which he called it an “irreplaceable primitive area.” Since the jetport proposal was abandoned two decades later, she said, preserving the Everglades has been paramount for both Republican and Democratic policymakers.

“Since that time, 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,” she wrote. “This order does nothing more than uphold the basic requirements of legislation designed to fulfill those promises.”