Judge Orders Wind Down of ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

A federal judge has issued a ruling blocking the Trump administration and Florida state officials from sending additional criminal illegal aliens to “Alligator Alcatraz,” the detention center in the Florida Everglades.  

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams, an appointee of President Barack Obama, issued an 82-page ruling Thursday night siding with environmental groups who claim the facility is a risk to the wildlife in the Everglades. In her ruling, Williams ordered the state to also begin dismantling elements of the detention facility.  

Florida now has 60 days to remove the temporary fencing, some of the lighting, and “all generators, gas, sewage, and other waste and waste receptacles that were installed to support this project,” according to the judge’s ruling.  

Shortly after plans for “Alligator Alcatraz” were announced, environmental groups and the Miccosukee Indian Tribe of Florida filed a lawsuit to block the project, claiming the facility violated the National Environmental Policy Act. 

The act requires the government to take environmental impact into consideration when proposing major projects.

“This ruling from an activist judge ignores the fact that this land has already been developed for a decade,” Tricia McLaughlin, Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary, said in a statement.  

The detention facility was set up on a concrete runway and taxiway at an airport in the Everglades that was built years ago.  

The ruling is “another attempt to prevent the president from fulfilling the American people’s mandate to remove the worst of the worst, including gang members, murderers, pedophiles, terrorists, and rapists from our country,” McLaughlin said. “This activist judge doesn’t care about the invasion of our country facilitated by the Biden administration, but the American people do. We have the law, the facts, and common sense on our side.” 

The state of Florida has filed a notice to appeal the case.  

Since the opening of the Florida detention center, DHS has announced plans to open two additional detention centers, one in Indiana called the “Speedway Slammer,” and one in Nebraska called the “Cornhusker Clink.”  

The detention facilities are intended to hold the “worst of the worst” criminal illegal aliens before they are removed from the U.S., according to DHS.  

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