Federal Judge Weighs Challenge to Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

The judge was concerned that the case should be heard in the district where the detention facility is located.

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

District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida heard arguments on Aug. 18 in a suit brought on behalf of detainees at the Florida detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz.

The suit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, accused the government of violating the detainees’ First Amendment rights by denying them access to attorneys and by not giving them privacy to discuss their cases.