The federal judge orders the administration of Trump to arrest the Alligator Alcatraz Ops

A federal judge of Miami ordered the temporary construction of detention “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida, Fox News learned.

US District Judge Kathleen Williams said the installation, built in the middle of Florida’s Everglades, can continue to hold migrant detainees, but cannot add any new infrastructure capacity. The decision stops new constructions, including filling, paving, installation of new infrastructure and installing new lighting, for a period of 14 days while the parties involved in a trial on installation end their audience on a motion for a preliminary injunction.

Williams made his decision at a Thursday hearing where lawyers argued that the detention center violates environmental laws.

Florida officials reveal criminal history of migrants to “Alligator Alcatraz”

In an aerial view from a helicopter, the migrant detention center, nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz”, is seen on the site of the Dade-Collier training and transition airport on July 4, 2025 in Ochopee, Florida. On Thursday, a judge ended the new construction of the establishment for at least 14 days. (Images Alon Skuy / Getty)

“The today’s decision of an activist judge will have no impact on the application of immigration to Florida,” said Alex Lanfranconi, director of communications for Florida Ron Desantis. “Alligator Alcatraz will remain operational, continuing to serve as a force multiplier to improve deportation efforts.”

The Office of the Attorney General of Florida James Uthmeier promised to appeal the decision.

“The ordinance of judge Williams is wrong, and we will fight it,” said Uthmeier communications director Jeremy Redfern in a statement to Fox News. “However, this does not stop Alligator Alcatraz, who will continue to send out illegal foreigners from where they came.”

Environmental groups – Friends of the Everglades and the Biological Diversity Center – and an Amerindian tribe asked Williams to issue a preliminary injunction to stop operations and more in -depth construction. A trial said that the project threatens the wet areas sensitive to the environment which are home to plants and protected animals and violates the national law on environmental policy, which obliges federal agencies to assess the environmental effects of the main construction projects.

Trump says that the only release of the “Alligator Alcatraz” is expulsion

“It is a relief that the court intervened to protect the sensitive waters of the Everglades, the starry sky and the vulnerable creatures of more harm while we continue our case,” said Elise Bennett, in Florida and Caribbean director and lawyer for the Center for Biological Diversity, in a declaration at Fox News Digital. “We are ready to move forward to go good to move forward and put an end to this contemptible plan.”

Paul Schwiep, lawyer for environmental groups, asked Williams to issue a temporary ban order to stop any new construction on the site.

Williams asked Florida’s lawyer, Jesse Panuccio, if the state would agree to stop construction so that it would not need to make the prohibition order. She pointed out that everything that is built on the site would probably remain permanently, whatever the way the case was finally decided.

Workers install an Alcatraz Permanent Alligator panel. The installation is in the Everglades of Florida, 36 miles west of the central Miami affairs district, in the County Collier. Florida, Thursday, July 3, 2025. (Getty Images)

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The property of 30 squares will house 5,000 prisoners and is kept by alligators and pythons.

The trial is one of the two legal challenges against the federal and state authorities. A second trial brought by a civil rights group alleys that prisoners are deprived of their constitutional rights, as well as their ban on meeting lawyers and being held without any accusation.

Fox News Digital contacted the White House.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.