Florida’s notorious Everglades detention camp, nicknamed Alligator Alcatraz, is officially on death row after a federal judge ruled Thursday that the controversial facility must be dismantled within 60 days.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams handed down a blistering injunction that bars the state from taking in new detainees, halts expansion plans, and orders the removal of fencing, floodlights, generators, and waste bins. Inmates currently housed inside the sprawling compound are expected to be transferred elsewhere before the deadline expires.
The decision is a major setback for Florida’s Republican leaders and their alignment with Donald Trump’s aggressive detention-and-deportation push. Alligator Alcatraz, erected in less than two weeks at a disused runway in the middle of the Everglades, had become a symbol of the administration’s willingness to bypass regulations in order to lock up thousands of people accused of being undocumented immigrants, many with no criminal history.
🚨BREAKING!!! A federal judge just ruled that Florida can’t expand the immigration detention facility in the Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” and must begin dismantling it.
Judge Kathleen Williams ordered the state to stop construction at the facility and remove fencing,… pic.twitter.com/FtK54rDj0W
— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) August 22, 2025
According to Los Angeles Times, Williams’ ruling came after the Miccosukee Tribe and environmental advocates sued, arguing the camp trampled endangered species’ habitats, threatened Florida’s drinking water, and violated decades of pledges to preserve the fragile ecosystem. The judge agreed, writing that her order simply upheld the promises made by generations of state and federal officials to protect the Everglades.
What lies behind the chain-link fencing is nothing short of dystopian, according to former staff and detainees. The facility’s white canvas tents hold rows of bunkbeds caged off like dog kennels. Inmates are denied natural light, don’t know the time of day, and say they often go days without showers or their medication.
The conditions border on the grotesque: food allegedly crawling with worms, toilets overflowing and flooding tents with raw sewage, and mosquitoes swarming in the muggy Everglades heat. Air conditioners sputter out in the middle of the day, leaving detainees sweltering. Legal access is also severely restricted, most can only make short phone calls to lawyers or family.
🚨 BREAKING – COUP: Obama Judge Kathleen Williams BANS the Trump Administration from bringing any more criminal illegal aliens to Alligator Alcatraz and orders they start to TEAR DOWN the facility.
This is an ludicrous, outrageous ruling, it must be OVERTURNED IMMEDIATELY. pic.twitter.com/E3TJVzS6Wg
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 22, 2025
Human rights activists called the place a “hastily-built concentration camp,” while former employees described “human-sized kennels” unfit for basic dignity.
Beyond the humanitarian outrage, the environmental costs proved decisive in court. Witnesses testified that at least 20 acres of asphalt had already been poured, threatening to spread toxic runoff into wetlands. Conservationists warned the damage could choke off habitats for endangered Florida panthers and poison waterways that supply millions of Floridians.
Amy Castaneda, the Miccosukee Tribe’s water resource director, told the court that nutrient runoff from the site could trigger fish kills and alter vegetation growth across tribal lands. “This is about our survival,” she testified.
Good morning and Happy Friday to everyone who is THRILLED to hear that the inhumane hellhole known as Alligator Alcatraz has been ordered by a judge to SHUT DOWN within 60 days.
You can’t treat humans like that.
THIS IS AMERICA.pic.twitter.com/xsPLcGMFmF— BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️ (@mmpadellan) August 22, 2025
Lawyers for Florida argued that since the state built the facility to ease federal detention overcrowding, federal environmental rules shouldn’t apply. But Judge Williams shot down that logic, saying the center was at least a joint state-federal project and therefore subject to federal law.
Meanwhile, reports surfaced that Governor Ron DeSantis’s administration was eyeing another detention center at a National Guard site in north Florida, raising fears of another showdown. Civil rights groups have already filed a separate lawsuit claiming detainees’ constitutional rights are being trampled, bond hearings canceled, lawyers blocked, and people held indefinitely without charges.
Judge Williams’ gavel came down hard, and in two months’ time, the gates of Alligator Alcatraz may finally swing shut for good.
