A federal judge in Miami imposed a temporary restraining order on Thursday on construction of the migrant detention facility dubbed by Florida officials as “Alligator Alcatraz.”
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams, a President Barack Obama appointee, issued the restraining order, which stops any construction at the site, but allows it to continue to accept migrants.
The reasoning was possible environmental damage from the site, which is built on the site of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport.
Florida Gov. DeSantis said on X that “Operations at Alligator Alcatraz are ongoing and deportations are continuing.”
He also said on Aug. 1 that 600 migrants have been processed through the facility, which has drawn protests from human rights groups and Democrats concerned over rights violations and poor treatment of detainees at the facility.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is named in the lawsuit filed by two environmental groups, the Friends of the Everglades and the Center For Biological Diversity, along with the Miccosukee Tribe. The lawsuit says the facility is in violation of National Environmental Protection Act and the Administrative Procedure Act because no environmental impact statement was sought for the facility.
“The hasty transformation of the site into a mass detention facility, which includes the installation of housing units, construction of sanitation and food services systems, industrial high-intensity lighting infrastructure, diesel power generators, substantial fill material altering the natural terrain, and provision of transportation logistics (including apparent planned use of the runway to receive and deport detainees) poses clear environmental impacts,” the complaint reads.
The 30-square mile airport owned by Miami-Dade County is located roughly 60 miles east of Miami near the Everglades National Park. Its 10,000-foot-long asphalt runway was used for military training exercises and was intended to be part of Miami’s new airport before a public outcry halted construction in 1970.
