A federal judge has ordered the remote detention camp in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz” to no longer take additional detainees and remove additional infrastructure added to the site.
The judge issued the preliminary injunction after a federal lawsuit was filed by environmental groups and a Native American tribe who are concerned with the impact the facility will have on the environmentally sensitive area.
The order mandates no additional detainees beyond those currently housed at the facility be moved there.
Judge Kathleen Williams also says lighting, fencing and “all generators, gas, sewage, and other waste and waste receptacles that were installed to support this project” added to Collier Dade Training and Transition Airport must be removed within 60 days of the order.
Deep in the marshy wetlands of the Everglades, “Alligator Alcatraz” has been mired in controversy since the start, with lawmakers who toured the site describing hundreds of migrants confined in cages amid sweltering heat, bug infestations and meager meals.
Questions about who is in charge of “Alligator Alcatraz” whether it be the federal government or the state of Florida have also persisted. Florida says it’s operating the temporary detention camp under agreements between state and local agencies and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But when it comes to day-to-day operations at the facility, and to decisions about who’s detained there, federal officials have said the state is in charge.
Critics argue the lack of clarity around the ultimate responsibility for the facility raises concerns about accountability and oversight.
The facility is surrounded by Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve and the tribal lands of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, a plaintiff in the case.
The hastily built detention center is a little more than an hour’s drive west of Miami. During a tour of the facility before its opening, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis stressed the facility was both temporary and necessary to alleviate the burdens on the state’s law enforcement agencies and jails, which he said were seeing an influx of migrants. It is built on an airstrip and comprises repurposed FEMA trailers and tents, surrounded by a fence.
Friends of the Everglades, another plaintiff in the case, was founded to oppose construction on the very same spot in 1969, Eve Samples, the group’s executive director, told CNN.
This lawsuit against the facility is one of two working its way through the federal court system. A second lawsuit focuses on legal access for those detained at the facility.
CNN has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Division of Emergency Management for comment on the judge’s order.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
CNN’s Isabel Rosales & Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report.
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