An environmental groups’ lawsuit backfired terribly when Trump and DeSantis dropped this game-changing news

Environmental activists thought they had Donald Trump cornered.

They believed their lawsuit would shut down his immigration enforcement.

But an environmental groups’ lawsuit backfired terribly when Trump and DeSantis dropped this game-changing news.

“Alligator Alcatraz” keeps growing despite legal challenges

Liberal environmental groups have been throwing everything they can at President Trump’s massive deportation operation.

Two activist organizations — Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity — launched a federal court challenge last month trying to stop Florida’s newest detention center.¹

The facility has earned the nickname “Alligator Alcatraz” because of its location in Florida’s remote wilderness areas.

Governor Ron DeSantis and other Florida officials are working hand-in-hand with President Trump to help carry out his promise of mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.

But the environmental groups’ legal strategy isn’t working out the way they planned.

The activists are claiming the new facility poses dangers to protected wildlife and pristine wilderness areas in South Florida.

They want a federal judge to issue emergency orders shutting down the project while their court battle plays out.

Florida officials chose to construct the detention center at a former flight training location in one of the state’s most isolated areas.

The environmental lawyers are claiming government agencies broke federal environmental protection laws by failing to study the potential damage before construction began.

State and federal attorneys are fighting back hard against the lawsuit.

They’re arguing that the environmental groups can’t prove the project would cause permanent damage to the surrounding wilderness.

They’re also citing the broader effort by the Trump administration and state Republican leaders to crack down on illegal immigration.

Trump administration lawyers crush environmental arguments

Trump administration lawyers delivered a crushing blow to the environmental groups’ case last week.

They argued that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security “has not implemented, authorized, directed or funded” the Florida facility.¹

That means the pre-development impact analysis the environmental groups are demanding wasn’t required under federal law.

The environmental groups’ attorneys scrambled to respond in a document filed Thursday.

They claimed the federal government “cannot shirk” legal requirements “by passing the buck to the state.”¹

“Defendants ignore the obvious: In performing exclusively federal functions on immigration enforcement, the state must necessarily be acting under federal control and authority at every step to build, maintain, and operate the detention center, because the state otherwise lacks the power to detain and deport individuals under federal immigration law,” the groups’ lawyers wrote.¹

But their arguments sound increasingly desperate as the facility continues operating.

The environmental groups also disputed state and federal officials’ claims that the detention center would have minimal environmental impact.

They’re particularly worried about protected species like Florida panthers and bonneted bats in the area.

The activists claimed the need for an injunction “has only grown more urgent” since they filed their lawsuit on June 27.¹

They included before-and-after photos of the site showing the construction progress.

“While the state continues to downplay the impacts of the detention center (and describe it as ‘temporary’), the evidence proves otherwise: Previously unimproved sections of the site have been filled and paved; roads have been added and expanded; and the night sky over Big Cypress now glows like Yankee Stadium, visible from 15 miles away,” the environmental groups’ lawyers wrote.¹

DeSantis and Trump embrace the controversy

Rather than backing down from the environmental groups’ attacks, DeSantis and Trump are embracing the attention.

https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/1940145380806558129

The new detention center can hold, process and remove migrants from the country, with National Guard soldiers and private security companies handling operations.

Officials say the facility can accommodate as many as 3,000 people at once.

As controversy about the detention center sparked international headlines, DeSantis, Trump and other high-ranking GOP officials welcomed the spotlight.

President Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem joined DeSantis and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier to tour the facility last week.

The Republican Party of Florida and a political committee linked to Uthmeier are even selling “Alligator Alcatraz” merchandise.

Speaking at an event Monday in Jacksonville, DeSantis said the federal government would reimburse the state for the costs of the facility.

Officials estimate the cost at approximately $450 million during the first year of operations.

“When you spend money for this, you save money (related to undocumented immigrants), because you take (away) stress of hospitals, schools, criminal justice,” the governor said. “We’re fronting it, but we’re getting reimbursed in it.”¹

DeSantis explained that the detainees include “really bad dudes.”¹

“The reality is some of the people DHS (Department of Homeland Security) is sending there, they have committed a lot of criminal misconduct,” he added. “We need to make sure that they’re removed from the country.”¹

Florida is paying millions of dollars to private companies for medical care, food service, security and other operations at the facility.

One of the contractors is GardaWorld Federal Services, an international security company that already works with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on detention services.

GardaWorld recently posted job advertisements looking for security guards in Ochopee, Florida — the location of Alligator Alcatraz.

The guards would be paid $25 per hour and expected to work 60 hours per week.

“All personnel will be required to live on-site, and meals and housing will be provided. Flights provided!” the ad said.¹

Job applicants “must legally own and possess a registered approved 9mm semiautomatic pistol, .40 caliber handgun OR .45 ACP handgun” and have at least one year of experience in “armed security, law enforcement, or military, with a strong preference for experience in a custodial setting.”¹

Second detention center planned despite legal challenges

The environmental groups’ lawsuit clearly isn’t slowing down Trump and DeSantis.

Florida is also planning to construct a second detention center for undocumented immigrants at Camp Blanding in the northern part of the state.

The location currently serves as a training facility for the Florida National Guard.

State planning documents show the Camp Blanding facility would house up to 1,000 people.¹

DeSantis provided an update on the Camp Blanding project during his Monday press conference.

The state emergency management division is still in the process of selecting construction crews for the site.

“All these projects are competitively bid, so they got to score the projects as they come in…or the vendors. So, eventually I think vendors will be selected and then at that point they’d be able to do it,” DeSantis said.²

The governor wants to make sure another facility is actually needed before moving forward.

“What we want to know is okay, what’s the demand signal for it, we’re happy to stand it up, but we want to make sure that it’s being used to effectuate the removal of illegal aliens from the country,” he said.²

DeSantis is still holding to his plan that the federal government will reimburse the state for the project.

There’s no clear timeline on when construction could begin on the facility at Camp Blanding.

The environmental groups’ legal challenge has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez for resolution.

But based on the arguments so far, it looks like Trump and DeSantis are going to keep winning this fight.

The environmental activists thought they could use the courts to stop Trump’s immigration enforcement.

Instead, they’re watching helplessly as “Alligator Alcatraz” keeps operating and a second detention center gets planned.

That’s what happens when you try to stand in the way of President Trump’s America First agenda.

¹ Dara Kam, “Groups say state, feds partners in Everglades detention center,” WGCU, July 7, 2025.

² Deja Mayfield, “’We don’t want to do it just to do it’: Camp Blanding ICE facility may take longer than planned,” Action News Jax, July 7, 2025.