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4h ago

Email Suggests Florida's 'Alligator Alcatraz' Will Be Empty Within Days

The disclosure comes as appeals target a court order requiring a 60-day wind-down over likely NEPA violations.

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FILE - Work progresses on a new migrant detention facility dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz," at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility in the Florida Everglades, on July 4, 2025, in Ochopee, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
Workers install a permanent Alligator Alcatraz sign, in Collier County, Florida, on July 3, 2025. (Al Diaz/Miami Herald/TNS)
(L/R) US President Donald Trump, alongside Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, speaks to reporters after arriving at Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Florida, on July 1, 2025. President Trump is visiting a migrant detention center in a reptile-infested Florida swamp dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz." Trump will attend the opening of the 5,000-bed facility -- located at an abandoned airfield in the Everglades wetlands -- part of his expansion of deportations of undocumented migrants, his spokeswoman said. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

Overview

  • Florida emergency management chief Kevin Guthrie wrote on Aug. 22 that the Everglades detention site was “probably going to be down to 0 individuals within a few days,” as confirmed to the Associated Press.
  • U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams issued a preliminary injunction ordering no new detainees, halting further construction, and requiring removal of fencing, lighting, and generators within 60 days.
  • Florida and the federal government appealed and asked the 11th Circuit for a stay of the injunction, and the judge had not ruled on a separate stay request as of Wednesday.
  • Attorneys general from 22 Republican-led states filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Florida’s position that NEPA does not apply to a state-run facility.
  • Civil-rights filings report detainees held without charges, limited access to attorneys, and unsanitary conditions, as the facility—opened July 1 with more than $245 million in contracts—transfers or deports remaining detainees.