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By Sonam Sheth
Evening Politics Editor
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A federal judge on Thursday ordered a temporary halt to construction at a detention center built in the middle of the Everglades in Florida that has been dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" by the Trump administration.
Why It Matters
President Donald Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other administration officials have touted the facility—built by repurposing the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopeé, Florida—as representing the White House's hard-line stance on immigration enforcement and border security.
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Critics, meanwhile, have said detainees at the facility are forced to endure unsafe, unsanitary and inhumane living conditions and that Alligator Alcatraz runs afoul of environmental laws. The detention center was quickly created and holds an estimated 1,000 beds. The bunk beds are stacked together in wire-fenced cages.
Alligator Alcatraz is expected to cost Florida about $450 million annually to operate.
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What To Know
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams ruled that Alligator Alcatraz can continue to operate and hold people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement but that workers constructing the detention center cannot do any work on building it for the next two weeks while legal arguments continue to play out.
Williams' ruling temporarily blocking new construction comes as environmental groups argue that the detention facility violates the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federal agencies to evaluate the environmental impact of major construction projects.
Attorneys for Florida argued that although Alligator Alcatraz will hold federal detainees, its construction and operation are under the state's purview and that NEPA does not apply.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs pushed back on that argument, saying that the detention facility was built specifically for federal immigration enforcement priorities and that if the federal government did not want a facility that housed detainees, it would not exist.
Williams landed in the middle ground, saying that the construction of the detention center is a partnership between the federal and state governments.
What People Are Saying
Nick Sortor, a pro-Trump political commentator, derided Williams' ruling, writing on X: "YOU'VE GOTTA BE KIDDING ME. Activist judges are doing literally ANYTHING to block deportations. START IMPEACHING,@HOUSEGOP!"
Trump said while touring the detention facility in July that its name was "very appropriate because ... that's not a place I want to go hiking any time soon."
Adding:"We're surrounded by miles of treacherous swampland and the only way out is, really, deportation."
This is a breaking news story. Updates to follow.
The Associated Press contributed reporting to this story.
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