When President Donald Trump took office and began his campaign to secure America’s border and enforce the nation’s border and immigration laws, Florida came to his assistance.
The state created Alligator Alcatraz, also known as the South Florida Detention Facility, to be used for illegal aliens under arrest or awaiting deportation.
The facility, intended to house thousands, sits on an airstrip some 45 miles west of Miami and is surrounded by swamps, mosquitoes, pythons and alligators.
And now a federal appeals court has ruled that it can stay open.
It had been the focal point of multiple legal challenges claiming “inhumane” conditions for its inmates, it lacked an environment assessment, it violated “ancestral lands” and more.
Late in 2025 Kathleen Williams, a trial court judge, ordered construction halted and banned the government from transferring inmates there, a ruling that was put on hold pending appeal.
A report from the Washington Examiner now confirms the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has crushed those cases, and the lower court’s order.
“Using state employees and state funds, Florida officials, on their own initiative, constructed a detention center at an airport on state property in the Florida Everglades,” the ruling said.
“Florida, not federal, officials constructed the facility. They control the land and ‘entirely’ built the facility at state expense. The only federal action the environmentalists can identify is the decision not to conduct an environmental review. And that decision alone, as all parties agree, is not final agency action.”
State and federal government officials had explained exactly that during the appeals process, pointing out the state controls the facility, thereby waiving the need for an environmental review.
The three plaintiffs included Friends of the Everglades, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Miccosukee Tribe. They claimed the detention center, in the natural wetland, must go through a federal environmental review.
No, the judges said, on a 2-1 vote.
Explained the Examiner, “Alligator Alcatraz can now remain open and is not required to undergo a National Environmental Policy Act review, barring further court proceedings.”
Williams earlier had insisted that the facility be closed entirely, a demand that now is abandoned.
The plaintiffs said they would continue to fight.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, celebrated the ruling on X. He said, ““Yet another example a leftist district court judge getting reversed on appeal. Rinse and repeat.”
Federal court struck down an activist judge that ruled Gov. DeSantis dismantle Alligator Alcatraz. pic.twitter.com/vUyoj5pWUL
— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) April 22, 2026
BIG WIN
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals just REVERSED the ruling by Obama-appointed US District Judge Kathleen Williams, which ordered Alligator Alcatraz to halt further expansion and roll back operations.
Woke judge defeated! https://t.co/1mQPe2szyj
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 22, 2026
