Judge Shuts Down Trump’s Alligator Alcatraz
A federal judge appointed by former President Barack Obama has temporarily halted construction at Florida’s new Alligator Alcatraz migrant detention center, a key facility designed to help tackle America’s border crisis.
The ruling, issued Thursday by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams, stops paving, lighting, and other infrastructure work for at least two weeks. Federal immigration officials can still detain illegal migrants already on-site.
The Alligator Alcatraz facility, which opened in July in the Florida Everglades, has the capacity to hold thousands of illegal border crossers. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has called it a “model for state-run detention centers” that other states could adopt to protect communities and restore law and order.
The pause comes after environmental activist groups — the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Everglades — filed a lawsuit claiming the project violates the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). That decades-old law requires the government to review environmental impacts before major construction projects.
Critics say these lawsuits are part of a growing trend in which left-wing groups weaponize environmental rules to delay or derail vital border security measures. Supporters of the pause insist they’re protecting the Everglades ecosystem from potential harm.
The Justice Department counters that NEPA does not apply because the facility is state-run and argues Williams’s Miami court is the wrong venue since the detention center is located elsewhere in Florida.
This is not the only legal battle surrounding Alligator Alcatraz. Immigration advocacy groups and some detainees have also sued, claiming migrants are being denied proper access to attorneys. That case will be heard Aug. 18 before a different federal judge.
For many Floridians, the ruling is a setback in the fight to control illegal immigration and ease the strain on law enforcement, schools, and hospitals. With record numbers of border crossings in recent years, supporters warn that delaying this facility risks making the crisis even worse.
