'Just in Time': Federal Judge Orders Closure of 'Alligator Alcatraz'

A federal judge on Thursday ordered the shutdown of the so-called "Alligator Alcatraz" immigrant detention facility in the Florida Everglades, leading to cheers from local environmental advocates.

The ruling by Judge Kathleen Williams of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida sided with the plaintiffs that the facility was doing significant damage to the ecosystem of the Everglades. Williams noted the fragile wetlands have been protected from big developments for decades after a proposed commercial airport in the area was rejected in the 1960s.

"Since that time, every Florida governor, every Florida senator, and countless local and national political figures, including presidents, have publicly pledged their unequivocal support for the restoration, conservation, and protection of the Everglades," she wrote. "This order does nothing more than uphold the basic requirements of legislation designed to fulfill those promises."

Williams gave the state of Florida 60 days to shut down the site. In that time, she ordered all construction at the facility to be halted and for there to be no further increase in the number of detainees currently being held there.

Though an appeal is almost certain, environmental advocates who brought the lawsuit against the facility took a victory lap in the wake of Williams's ruling.

Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, hailed the decision as a "landmark victory" that "sends a clear message that environmental laws must be respected by leaders at the highest levels of our government—and there are consequences for ignoring them."

Elise Bennett, Florida and Caribbean director and attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said that the injunction issued by Williams was "a huge relief for millions of people who love the Everglades."

"This brutal detention center was burning a hole in the fabric of life that supports our most iconic wetland and a whole host of endangered species, from majestic Florida panthers to wizened wood storks," Bennett added. "The judge's order came just in time to stop it all from unraveling."

Tania Galloni, managing attorney for the Florida office of Earthjustice, said the judge's decision showed "the government can't just build something in the middle of the Everglades and the Big Cypress preserve with no environmental review, and no public input," and added that "this is why we have environmental laws—to protect the wetlands and ecosystems we all depend on from illegal development."

Williams's ruling came just two weeks after she ordered a temporary halt to all construction at the facility, which was first announced earlier this summer when Republican Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier unveiled a plan to renovate the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport and transform it into a mass detention center for immigrants.

The center has drawn criticism from human rights groups as well as from Democrats who visited the facility last month. Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), one of the lawmakers to visit the facility, said afterward that "what I saw made my heart sink," referring to the conditions where detainees are being held.