Trump’s Everglades Immigration Detention Center faces two major lawsuits

The Trump administration’s immigration detention center in the Everglades has become the subject of two lawsuits, which has the potential to derail the facility’s actions as the administration adopts novel strategies to combat. migrant law enforcement.

The new facility, nicknamed Alcatraz, is facing charges that hundreds of detainees have been unable to communicate properly with their lawyers and have not been able to enter immigration courts until recently and live in inhuman conditions.

The second lawsuit says the temporary detention center is composed of tents and trailers surrounded by wetlands and wildlife, and is also illegally building sensitive habitats for endangered species.

Trump says the only way to get rid of “crocodile Orcatraz” is to deport

The American Civil Liberties Union filed its first complaints on behalf of several detained immigrants, and on Monday night, Justice Rodolfo Ruiz said his claim should have been made in central Florida rather than southern regions.

Ruiz, appointed by Trump, said the case had to be transferred to the area and found that the alleged violation occurred at a facility in Collier County, about 50 miles from Miami.

ACLU, along with other groups, argued in the lawsuit that some detainees were not able to communicate secretly with lawyers until recently, Trump administration No immigration court has been designated as jurisdiction over detained immigrants, of which approximately 700 are.

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The entrance to the state-managed immigration detention center is called Crocodile Alcatraz, located on August 3, 2025 at Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Florida Florida Florida Florida Florida Florida Florida Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Image)

“This is an unprecedented situation where hundreds of detainees are detained without interpretation and potentially non-existent legal authorization and have no ability to access the court,” the plaintiff’s attorney wrote.

The lawyers said that although not part of the law’s requirement, their clients were held in “harsh and inhumane conditions” that included a daily meal, lack of access to daily showers, guarding too much force and lack of medical care. The lawyer said they were “covered with clocks in a cage inside the tent.”

The Department of Homeland Security works with Florida to build the crocodile tower, Controversial claims The conditions for the detainees are harsh.

Protesters gathered on July 22, 2025, calling for the closure of immigration detention centers at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Florida, known as the “Crocodile Alcatraz.” (Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images)

“The following is the fact: Crocodile and crocodile wolf does meet federal detention standards,” said DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin. “All detainees have facilities that are clean. Any allegations of inhumane conditions are wrong. When will the media stop peddling scams of illegal foreign detention centers and start focusing on U.S. victims of illegal foreign crimes?”

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said the facility is intended for the time being and is a means to reduce the burden on other detention centers. DeSantis said he hopes the Alcatraz built at the airport will become the “power multiplier” of Trump’s active deportation agenda.

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In another case, Justice Catherine Williams, appointed by Obama, is considering whether the crocodile and crocodile wolf should be stopped for violations of the National Environmental Policy Act.

Williams holds a 14-day holding on all construction of the facility, but the order is scheduled to expire on August 21. The judge vowed to issue another order on that date, saying temporary damage caused by the suspension of construction, if lack of compliance is found Environmental Laws and regulations.