Alligator Alcatraz

Plaintiffs react following judges order to dismantle Alligator Alcatraz over the next 60 days

The lawsuit filed Friday contends the state doesn't have the authority to run detention centers and that the officers who are working at the Everglades facility lack federally required training.

"The ruling highlights what community organizations already knew: in their haste to build the nation's first state-run detention facility, the DeSantis Administration refused to consider the environmental impacts of the camp on sacred indigenous land," said the groups in a joint statement issued Friday.

A Judge on Thursday ordered the facility to wind down operations within two months.

This week on "The Florida Roundup," we spoke with Florida’s CFO Blaise Ingoglia about the latest ruling on “Alligator Alcatraz,” redistricting, and the state’s DOGE audits. Then, POLITICO’s Kimberly Leonard joined us for a deeper dive into court decisions around the controversial immigrant detention center in the Everglades and more.

"This is a landmark victory for the Everglades and countless Americans who believe this imperiled wilderness should be protected, not exploited," said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, in a statement.

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction halting further expansion and ordering the winding down of the immigration detention center. The state quickly appealed the decision.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, of Orlando, toured "Alligator Alcatraz" in the Everglades for the second time on Wednesday and found far fewer people being held in the controversial facility, but that detainees continue being held in "cages" and in "horrible conditions."

Although a federal judge in Miami ordered their case to be moved to another Florida district, the ACLU and other plaintiffs suing the controversial migrant detention facility over access to attorneys insist they'll win the litigation - and that they have already been handed "an important victory."

The judge ruled that claims about detainees lacking confidential access to lawyers or hearings were moot while transferring the remaining case to a different jurisdiction.

On a sweltering afternoon in the Everglades, the nonprofit Guatemalan Maya Center organized the service in protest of the reportedly harsh conditions inside the immigration detention center.

Civil rights attorneys in Miami asked a judge to ensure detainees have confidential access to their lawyers. They also want the judge to identify an immigration court with jurisdiction over the center.