Environmental groups file lawsuit to halt ‘Alligator Alcatraz' detention center

NBC Miami ^ | June 27, 2025 | News Service of Florida

[packagingguy]

Environmental groups Friday filed a federal lawsuit seeking to halt construction and operation of a detention center for undocumented immigrants that has been dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” saying it threatens ecologically sensitive areas and species in the surrounding Everglades and Big Cypress National Preserve.

The lawsuit, filed by the group Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, alleges that federal and state agencies have violated laws that, in part, require evaluating potential environmental impacts before such a project can move forward.

“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 lawsuit said. “The defendants, in their rush to build the center, have unlawfully bypassed the required environmental reviews. The direct and indirect harm to nearby wetlands, wildlife and air and water quality, and feasible alternatives to the action, must be considered under NEPA (a federal law known as the National Environmental Policy Act) before acting.”

The project has drawn national attention as Florida officials say they are trying to help President Donald Trump crack down on illegal immigration. DeSantis has brushed off arguments that the facility could harm the environment, saying Wednesday that opponents are “trying to use the Everglades as a pretext for the fact that they oppose immigration enforcement.”

“It isn’t like we are going to start doing permanent sewer and all the other things,” DeSantis said. “It’s all temporary. We’ll set it up and we’ll break it down. This isn’t our first rodeo. The impact will be zero.”

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TOPICS: Conspiracy; Local News; Society
KEYWORDS: alligatoralcatraz; evesamples; kieransuckling; lawsuit; marceyolajos; nostanding; philipkushlan; treason

[packagingguy]

Well this didn't take long. DeSantis is right, the real issue is that it's a lock-up for much anticipated future Democrat voters, even though the facility is only temporary.

[SpaceBar]

The illegals threaten the ecologically sensitive area called the United States.

[metmom]

BS. It’s not about the environment. There are already facilities there.

They’re just leftists who love criminals, the worse, the better. The environmental aspect is just an excuse to virtue signal will and feign innocence about their support of violent illegal invaders.

[Dr. Sivana]

According to Co-Pilot AI:

Yes, there had been an airport at the site now dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.” The location is the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, a 39-square-mile facility deep in the Florida Everglades. Originally, it was part of a wildly ambitious 1960s plan to build the world’s largest jetport, with six-mile-long runways and a new city rising around it2.

Only one runway was ever completed before the project was halted due to fierce opposition from environmentalists, Native American tribes, and conservationists like Marjory Stoneman Douglas. That lone airstrip—virtually abandoned for decades—is now being repurposed as a migrant detention center, earning it the nickname “Alligator Alcatraz”2.

So yes, the bones of an airport were there long before the current controversy took flight.

[hal ogen]

Typical leftist-loser move...whine to the court. No standing!

[ConservativeMind]

Sorry, but you have no standing.

The lawsuit must be formally filed by an alligator living immediate around the location.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

The “required environmental reviews” would be done by 2050. What’s the big deal?

[DIRTYSECRET]

My friends we all know it’s the environuts who are the most whacko. We need to push their buttons more as the blacks and latinos come around to our way. Exposing the girlie-men and the Karens can only help.

LGBTQ? They don’t need our help just more air time.

[Libloather]

If it gives alligators indigestion, how would they know?

[Dilbert San Diego]

What’s with this Alligator Alcatraz name?

Using the name of a famous prison seems to be implying that this place is a prison.

So do the liberals think that this place is a prison?

From what I hear, aliens will be processed there. They will be treated humanely. They will be accorded due process. We’ve been lectured recently about how illegal aliens deserve due process. Well they will be getting due process.

So what is the exact complaint?

[metmom]

They should be so concerned for the environmental impact of the trash trails the illegals leave crossing the border.

[Lazamataz]

One of Nixon’s two biggest mistakes: The EPA.

[rktman]

Ignore, proceed.

[Lazamataz]

So do the liberals think that this place is a prison? From what I hear, aliens will be processed there. They will be treated humanely. They will be accorded due process. We’ve been lectured recently about how illegal aliens deserve due process. Well they will be getting due process.

So what is the exact complaint?

Trump.

[jacknhoo]

The illegal alien invasion is a national emergency. Suck it up, buttercups!

[V_TWIN]

To late....it’s already built.

[TexasGator]

“the real issue is that it’s a lock-up for much anticipated future Democrat voters”

The issue is not voting, it is the 2030 census. Removing illegals from blue states will result in a bunch of lost congressional seats.

[Lockbox]

Find their home addresses, send them some illegals to live there! Have a good day!

[ptsal]

bkmk

[alloysteel]

These liberals should think further into the future. When they regain power (a real possibility, given the way things go awry in the various election and judicial venues), the facilities will make an excellent holding center for a “re-education camp” for unregenerate and recalcitrant “deniers” of the virtues of social democracy, under the restored DEI statutes.

They just have to pick the right people to run the new order when it is brought to fruition.

(Do I HAFTA include the < /sarcasm > tag?}