‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Detention Center Plans Draw Lawsuit (1)

Environmentalists are suing the Department of Homeland Security for quickly greenlighting the construction of an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades without any environmental review.

The DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement division and the Florida Division of Emergency Management steamrolled environmental law to begin what the state’s Attorney General James Uthmeier (R) called “Alligator Alcatraz,” a temporary migrant detention center set to hold up to 5,000 detainees in Miami-Dade County amid overcrowding at other facilities, according to the complaint filed Friday.

The push to expand detention facilities into the everglades comes as immigration agencies are pressed to meet a 3,000 arrest-per-day quota set by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.

The government working at a “breakneck pace,” but no categorical exclusion for NEPA review has been applied, according to the lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

The complaint from the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Everglades opens a new front in opposition to President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. The uptick in high-profile arrests and deportations already has spurred widespread protests and a legal standoff between the president and California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) over whether the National Guard could be deployed to maintain order in Los Angeles.

According to the suit, the federal and state agencies began construction this week on the new detention center within the ecologically sensitive Greater Everglades and Big Cypress Area. Groups say no environmental assessment or environmental impact statement was prepared in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act.

“There is no emergency that would warrant departure from NEPA’s requirements,” the suit said.

The groups have since filed an expedited motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction on construction, arguing judicial intervention is needed to prevent ongoing harm to a “fragile area.”

The Florida Division of Emergency Management took control of an airstrip this week despite the County asking for a “detailed analysis and report on environmental impacts,” and there was no public comment period, the suit said. In a statement posted to X, DHS lauded the construction and said it will “expand facilities and bed space in just days, thanks to our partnership with Florida.”

“The site is more than 96% wetlands, surrounded by Big Cypress National Preserve, and is habitat for the endangered Florida panther and other iconic species,” Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, said in a statement. “This scheme is not only cruel, it threatens the Everglades ecosystem that state and federal taxpayers have spent billions to protect.”

The DHS and Florida Division of Emergency Management didn’t immediately respond to request for comment.

The plaintiffs are asking the court to block further construction on the site.

The groups are represented by Earthjustice, Coffey Burlington P.L., and the Center for Biological Diversity.

The case is Friends of the Everglades Inc. v. Noem, S.D. Fla., No. 1:25-cv-22896, complaint filed 6/27/25.