Florida’s controversial approach to immigration enforcement is under intense scrutiny as two lawsuits threaten to halt operations at the so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center in the Everglades, and Governor Ron DeSantis pushes ahead with plans for a second facility. The unfolding legal and political drama has put the state’s detention policies, environmental stewardship, and detainee rights at the center of a national debate.
Located deep within Florida’s swampy Everglades, “Alligator Alcatraz” was designed to house more than 3,000 immigrant detainees. State officials, including Governor DeSantis and former President Donald Trump, have publicly praised the facility’s location—its proximity to a major airport runway, they say, streamlines deportation flights, while the surrounding wetlands, teeming with alligators, purportedly deter escape attempts.
But the reality inside the detention center has drawn fierce criticism from a coalition of Democratic lawmakers, immigrant advocates, and environmentalists. According to CNN, lawmakers who toured the site described “wall-to-wall humans” packed into cages, with detainees reporting inhumane conditions: worms in their food, non-flushing toilets, floors flooded with fecal waste, and swarms of mosquitoes. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other organizations allege that some detainees are being held without charges or access to legal counsel, and that standard means of confidential attorney-client communication—such as in-person visits and private phone or video calls—are unavailable.
The legal backlash has come from two fronts. First, environmental groups, including Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, have filed suit to halt the facility’s operations, citing its proximity to marshlands that serve as a crucial source of freshwater for South Florida. “Defending the Everglades in this legal case is critically important,” said Tania Galloni, managing attorney for Earthjustice in Florida, which represents some of the plaintiffs. “This is a public natural resource we all depend on, and transforming this site into a mass detention center is reckless, especially without any environmental review.”
On August 7, 2025, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams ordered a 14-day pause on additional construction at the site, pending testimony at a hearing. The temporary restraining order does not restrict law enforcement or immigration enforcement activities, but Williams indicated she would make a more permanent decision before the order expires on August 21. If the lawsuits succeed, officials may be forced to rehouse thousands of detainees—a process that would be both logistically challenging and expensive, according to attorney Daniel Karon, who has been following the cases. “Both rulings for plaintiffs would shut down the facility and lead to difficult consequences, as these rulings would require the detainees to be rehoused, which would be logistically complicated and expensive,” Karon told CNN.
Meanwhile, a separate lawsuit filed by the ACLU, the U.S. Immigration Law Counsel, Florida Keys Immigration, and others, challenges what it describes as the government’s attempts to prevent people detained at Alligator Alcatraz from communicating with legal counsel and filing motions with the immigration court. The complaint names Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem among the defendants. According to the Associated Press, a federal judge has given the state until late September to prepare arguments against certifying the civil rights litigation as a class action.
Immigrant advocates have been outspoken in their condemnation of the facility and the policies that led to its creation. “They’ve created this capacity issue at detention camps by indiscriminate witch hunting against immigrants,” Thomas Kennedy, spokesperson for the Florida Immigrant Coalition, told CNN. “It’s a solution in search of a problem.” Kennedy also raised concerns about hurricane preparedness. As Florida’s hurricane season intensifies, he argued that officials lack an adequate plan for how the tent city would withstand a major storm. “DeSantis stood at a press conference and said that these tents can withstand a category 2 hurricane when we’ve seen with our own eyes how the site flooded with just a regular summer Florida rain during the first day when Trump was there,” Kennedy said.
Yet, the state’s leadership remains defiant. “We have partnered with the president of the United States, with the White House, with anybody and everybody who is serious about getting things done and getting illegal immigrants out of our nation and out of our country because that’s what Florida does,” Florida Lt. Gov. Jay Collins declared on August 14, 2025.
Undeterred by the backlash, Governor DeSantis has doubled down on his approach, announcing plans for a second immigration detention facility, dubbed the “Detention Depot,” at the Baker Correctional Institution—a temporarily closed state prison about 45 miles west of Jacksonville, near Osceola National Forest. State officials expect the new facility to hold about 1,300 detainees, with the potential to expand to 2,000 beds. The site, which closed in 2021 due to staffing shortages, will require upgrades such as air conditioning before opening, according to Kevin Guthrie, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management. Guthrie estimated it could take two to three weeks from August 15, 2025, to make the facility operational.
“The reason of this is not to just house people indefinitely. We want to process, stage and then return illegal aliens to their home country,” DeSantis said during the announcement. He emphasized that the Baker site was chosen over the previously considered Camp Blanding National Guard training site due to its available space and access to a regional airport. “Blanding does have air capacity, but probably not a big enough runway to handle large planes,” DeSantis explained.
The Florida National Guard and state contractors will staff the new facility as needed, replicating a model used previously when the Guard was deployed to assist state prisons amid chronic staffing shortages. DeSantis pledged that detainees at the new facility would receive “the same services” as those at the Everglades center, although attorneys representing detainees at Alligator Alcatraz have described conditions there as dire. In court filings, they alleged that some detainees with COVID-19 symptoms were not separated from the general population, tents were flooded by rainwater, and officers pressured detainees to sign voluntary removal orders before consulting their attorneys.
The legal challenge also seeks to clarify which immigration court has jurisdiction over detainees held at the Everglades site. Lawyers say they have been told that federal immigration courts in Florida do not have jurisdiction over those held at Alligator Alcatraz, creating further uncertainty for detainees and their advocates.
As the legal battles play out, the future of Florida’s detention facilities—and the thousands of immigrants held within their walls—remains uncertain. The outcome of these lawsuits could reshape not only the state’s immigration enforcement strategy but also set a precedent for the rest of the country as debates over border security, environmental protection, and due process continue to collide.