Siding With DeSantis, Federal Court Greenlights Everglades Detention Site

By Livia Caputo, Florida Phoenix

September 5, 2025

Siding with Gov. Ron DeSantis, a federal appeals court decided Thursday that “Alligator Alcatraz,” the immigrant detention center in the Florida Everglades, will not shut down.

The 2-to-1 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit stayed federal judge Kathleen Williams’ order to the state to stop bringing people to the site and to dismantle much of it by September’s end. The higher court’s decision came just two weeks after Williams handed down her preliminary injunction.

“Florida will undoubtedly be harmed if it cannot ‘apply its own laws’ to respond to an immigration crisis,” Judge Barbara Lagoa, appointed by President Donald Trump, wrote in the 33-page order.

“Given that the federal government has an undisputed and wide-reaching interest in combatting illegal immigration, and that illegal immigration is a matter of national security and public safety, we think the injunction issued below goes against the public interest.”

Lagoa, alongside Trump-appointee Judge Elizabeth Branch, pointed to a new Florida law mandating full participation with federal immigration authorities, and noted that the site has not received any federal funding. This means that federal environmental acts don’t apply, nullifying the plaintiffs’ arguments, they argued.

“The Florida-funded and Florida-operated detention activities occurring at the Site do not conceive a ‘major federal project,'” Lagoa wrote, seemingly contradicting DeSantis’s repeated assurances that the federal government will reimburse Florida for Alligator Alcatraz’s estimated $450 million price tag.

She remarked that promises of federal money to reimburse the state don’t equate to actually receiving the reimbursements.

The Thursday afternoon decision, which temporarily blocks Williams’ ruling and the case itself ahead of an appeal, was met with victorious cheers from top right-wing figures.

“Some leftist judge ruled, implausibly, that somehow Florida wasn’t allowed to use our own property to help the federal government in this important mission,” DeSantis announced in a one-minute social media video, applauding the appeals court for allowing the 3,000-bed facility to stay “open for business.”

“The mission continues.”

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, meanwhile, promptly encouraged X users to get their “Alligator Alcatraz” “swag” alongside a link to hats, shirts, and other merchandise touting the “Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide” slogan he helped popularize.

He noted that “victory was secured” against Williams, who had held him in civil contempt for encouraging state officers to arrest migrants without legal status, allegedly flouting one of her orders.

Uthmeier’s brainchild, the facility was constructed in just eight days. Leading Republicans, including President Donald Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, toured the center on its opening day. The massive fanfare surrounding the center inspired copycats in Nebraska and Indiana, with similarly alliterative names.

The Eleventh Circuit’s ruling comes less than two months after environmental groups sued to close the site, fearing destruction to unique habitats and endangered species. These organizations, which include the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Everglades, had declared victory after Williams’ Aug. 22 preliminary injunction. The Miccosukee Tribe of Florida was another plaintiff.

Now, they say, the fight is not over.

“The 11th Circuit’s order only pauses the district court’s injunction, and I’m confident we will ultimately prevail in defending the heart of Florida from this brutal and destructive facility,” said Elise Bennet, Florida director of the Center for Biological Diversity. She called the ruling “heartbreaking” but vowed to continue to appeal.

Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, agreed they are “committed to fighting on.”

Judge Adalberto Jordan, an Obama appointee, wrote the sole dissenting opinion, arguing the majority “ignores the burden borne by the defendants” and wholly disregards the lower court’s authority.

“If this trend continues, the bench and bar will be forgiven for thinking that a district court’s factual findings are only inconvenient speed bumps on the road to reversal,” he warned.

The lawsuit against the state is just one of many that emerged as the facility was quickly created. Florida Democratic lawmakers and the ACLU of Florida have both filed separate suits demanding access to the center and alleging human rights violations.

These suits came as Florida pushed to align with President Donald Trump’s anti-unauthorized immigration agenda.

The GOP-dominated Legislature passed a hefty package during its 2025 session revoking in-state tuition for undocumented college students, requiring counties to partner with federal immigration authorities, and mandating the death penalty for migrants illegally in the state convicted of capital crimes.

The Florida Phoenix, a nonprofit news site that’s free of advertising and free to readers, covers state government and politics through a mix of in-depth stories, briefs, and social media updates on the latest events, editorial cartoons, and progressive commentary. The Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by grants and a coalition of donors and readers.