Appeals Court Blocks Judge’s Order to Dismantle ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

The court found that the closing of the illegal immigrant detention facility was against the public interest and would cause irreparable harm to the state.

The entrance to the state-managed immigration detention center dubbed Alligator Alcatraz, located at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in the Florida Everglades in Ochopee, Fla., on Aug. 3, 2025. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Florida’s efforts against illegal immigration scored a victory on Sept. 4 as an appeals court blocked a federal judge’s order to dismantle the state’s detention and deportation facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”

“Victory secured against activist judge who held me in contempt,” Florida’s Attorney General James Uthmeier said on X. “The 11th Circuit not only blocked Judge [Kathleen] Williams’ order to close Alligator Alcatraz, but they blocked her from proceeding with the case until the appeal is complete.

“A win for Florida and President [Donald] Trump’s agenda!”

Last month, the district court sided with environmentalist groups, including Friends of the Everglades and Florida’s Miccosukee Tribe of Indians, finding that the federal government had violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) in failing to conduct an environmental impact review before the rapid construction of the facility at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport.

The district court also sided with plaintiffs, ruling that the operation of the facility was not in the public’s best interest, nor would closing it result in irreparable harm.

The appeals court disagreed with both of these rulings in a 2–1 decision, with circuit court judges Barbara Lagoa and Elizabeth Branch siding with the defendants, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

Lagoa said the defendants were likely to demonstrate on appeal that they did not violate NEPA or the APA, because the court found no evidence that federal funding had been formally committed to the project.

Although Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had, at one point, posted on Facebook that the facility would be funded largely by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), talk spread across social media about federal reimbursement did not suffice as a formal action, according to Lagoa.

“Obtaining funding from the federal government for a state project requires completing a formal and technical application process,” the judges wrote. “A governor cannot apply for FEMA aid via press conference ... and a Facebook post does not somehow transfer funds ... to Florida.”

However, if the state applies for FEMA funding, an environmental impact statement may be required by NEPA at that time, she said.

DHS praised the ruling as a “huge victory.”

“This lawsuit was never about the environmental impacts of turning a developed airport into a detention facility,” the department said in a post on X. “It has and will always be about open-borders activists and judges trying to keep law enforcement from removing dangerous criminal aliens from our communities, full stop.”

Lagoa and Branch also found that the closing of Alligator Alcatraz was against the public interest and would cause irreparable harm to the state.

“The Federal Defendants have established that the district court’s injunction will inevitably compromise DHS’s ability to keep criminal aliens detained, protect the law-abiding public, enforce immigration laws, and maintain border security,” Lagoa wrote. “We think that is enough to show irreparable harm.

“Additionally, the forced shuttering and dismantling of the Facility will come at a significant cost to the State.”

Circuit Judge Adalberto Jordan dissented, criticizing his colleagues’ approach.

“The majority, however, essentially ignores the burden borne by the defendants, pays only lip service to the abuse of discretion standard, engages in its own factfinding, declines to consider the district court’s determination on irreparable harm, and performs its own balancing of the equities,” he said.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis celebrated the news in a statement posted to social media.

“The mission continues,” he said, confirming that illegal immigrants continued to be checked into and deported from Alligator Alcatraz.

“The leftist judge has been overturned. Florida will keep leading the way.”