U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams, an Obama-appointed federal judge, last week inserted herself into the executive branch with a preliminary injunction halting further expansion and ordering the winding down of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Facility, or "Alligator Alcatraz," which was created in response to a 2023 executive order from Governor Ron DeSantis to support the federal government's immigration policies.
Radical environmentalists, however, claim it violates environmental laws. And this injunction formalizes the temporary halt Williams ordered earlier this month.
Jenna Ellis says Judge Williams' opinion is "utterly ridiculous."
"Alligator Alcatraz is on the site of an old and deficient airport," notes Ellis, "so the pretext that somehow this is going to in any way damage wildlife or the Everglades is ridiculous."
She says this ruling is obviously a political stunt that will hopefully be overturned on appeal.
" I don't see that Governor Ron DeSantis, Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins, or Attorney General James Uthmeier are going to be deterred in the slightest by this rogue judge's ruling," Ellis predicts. "I think they'll just continue to operate Alligator Alcatraz and meanwhile appeal this ruling, probably on jurisdictional grounds as well as the merits of the case."
The judge wrote that state and federal defendants cannot bring anyone new onto the property, and she expects the facility's population to decline within 60 days as detainees are transferred to other facilities. Fencing, lighting, and generators should then be removed, Williams said.
Approximately 400 people were being held at Alligator Alcatraz as of August 23, 2025. After the property is expanded, it is projected to hold up to 5,000.
Attorneys for the state and federal defendants did not immediately respond, but they have previously argued that although the detention center – which took its first detainee July 3 – would be holding federal detainees, its construction and operation was entirely under the state of Florida, meaning the federal environmental law does not apply.
