President Trump toured the facility dubbed Alligator Alcatraz on July 1.
MIAMI — The ongoing construction of a mass detention facility in the Florida Everglades for up to 5,000 undocumented immigrants violates both federal and state laws, environmental groups allege in a new federal lawsuit.
Friends of the Everglades Inc. and the Center for Biological Diversity filed the lawsuit June 27 against the federal Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as Miami-Dade County and the executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management. The complaint alleges violations of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and state statutes.
“Construction on the detention center has unfolded at a breakneck pace, and is ongoing,” the lawsuit states. “The (Emergency Management) Division took control of the site only on June 23, 2025. Since then, kitchen facilities, restrooms, housing facilities, portable industrial lighting and other infrastructure have been positioned on site, and heavy vehicular traffic in and out of the site has been observed, and is ongoing.”
The detention site, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” is located at what is now a pilot-training facility occupying 17,000 acres. The site is owned by Miami-Dade County and borders the Big Cypress National Preserve and Big Cypress Area, which are protected, ecologically sensitive lands containing threatened species such as the Florida panther, Everglade Snail kite and Florida bonneted bat, according to the lawsuit.
Florida officials have defended the facility as a cooperative move with the federal government to advance President Trump’s immigration policies.
“Gov. Ron DeSantis has insisted that Florida will be a force multiplier for federal immigration enforcement, and this facility is a necessary staging operation for mass deportations located at a pre-existing airport that will have no impact on the surrounding environment,” the Florida Governor’s Office said in a statement emailed to the Florida Record. “We look forward to litigating this case.”
But the legal complaint criticizes the federal and state agencies for moving forward on the construction without fully informing the public of the details of the project and not conducting any environmental studies about the project’s impact.
“The decision to construct a mass migrant detention and deportation center at the TNT (Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport) site was made without conducting any environmental reviews as required under NEPA, without public notice or comment, and without compliance with other federal statutes such as the Endangered Species Act, or state or local land-use laws,” the complaint states.
The lawsuit seeks the court’s declaration that the defendants’ actions violated the NEPA, APA and state environmental and land-use laws, an injunction to halt work on the detainment center and reimbursement of attorney fees and court costs.
“The site is more than 96% wetlands, surrounded by Big Cypress National Preserve, and is habitat for the endangered Florida panther and other iconic species,” Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, said in a prepared statement. “This scheme is not only cruel, it threatens the Everglades ecosystem that state and federal taxpayers have spent billions to protect.”
The Center for Biodiversity calls the Everglades the most important breeding ground for wading birds in North America and the largest mangrove region in the Americas.
