An appeals court hearing in the legal fight by environmental activists to shutter the Alligator Alcatraz immigration detention facility turned into a battle on Tuesday over who controls the facility: the state or the federal government.
The lawsuit, filed by Friends of the Everglades, claims that the construction of the immigration detention facility on the site of an airstrip in the Florida Everglades last year was done without a required environmental review, in violation of federal law. Both officials from the Florida government and the federal government insisted during the hearing that the state controls the facility, meaning it would not be subject to the environmental review required for projects under federal control.
The three-judge panel seemed skeptical of the environmental group’s bid to unblock its halt of U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams’s August 2025 ruling ordering the facility to be closed within 60 days. A different panel on the appeals court paused the order from Williams, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, in September 2025.
“You agree, the state … never has an obligation, if it’s just operating as the state. [The National Environmental Policy Act] just doesn’t govern it, does it?” one of the judges questioned one of the lawyers for the environmental group, who acknowledged that NEPA, the law that requires environmental reviews, does not apply to the state.
“So what has to convert this is, it has to be federally funded and federally controlled. And if there’s no federal control, if the determination of this project is ultimately the state’s decision, that’s the real issue, right?” the judge continued.
Lawyers for the Florida government stressed that while the facility does hold federal immigration detainees, it is operated by the state and is under state control. One of the judges questioned whether the state could theoretically take back the facility suddenly for hurricane relief, to which the Florida lawyer said the state could because the facility belongs to it.
“Florida’s decision to build a Florida detention facility in response to a Florida immigration emergency on Florida land does not trigger a federal NEPA obligation,” DOJ lawyer Adam Gustafson told the appeals court panel.
The panel was composed of one appointee of President Donald Trump, one appointee of former President George W. Bush, and one of former President Joe Biden. The two judges appointed by Republican presidents appeared more receptive to the state and federal government’s arguments, while the Biden appointee, U.S. Circuit Judge Nancy Abudu, appeared more receptive to the environmental group’s arguments.
FLORIDA JUDGE REJECTS INJUNCTION SEEKING TO CLOSE ‘ALLIGATOR ALCATRAZ’
The appeals court panel did not say when it would rule on the fate of Alligator Alcatraz.
Alligator Alcatraz has been the most publicized and controversial of the various immigration detention centers that have popped up over the past year in Republican-led states, with Democrat-aligned activists attempting to shutter the facility through different lawsuits as part of the outcry over the Trump administration’s immigration policy.