FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 3, 2025
Contact: Ashley Sullivan, ashley.sullivan@weact.org, 1 (917) 837 – 1183
WASHINGTON – On Thursday, August 21, 2025, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams ordered the Trump administration and the state of Florida to immediately halt processing new detainees, cease construction, and terminate operations at the mass immigrant detention center known as the South Florida Detention Facility in Florida’s Big Cypress National Preserve. The preliminary injunction, requested by the Miccosukee Tribe, Friends of the Everglades, and the Center for Biological Diversity, demonstrates the continued vital nature of bedrock environmental legislation such as the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the crucial leadership of Indigenous groups, as well as the ongoing need to advance environmental justice in the U.S.
Judge William’s ruling pointed out that the detention center—which some Republicans have promoted as “Alligator Alcatraz”—was built rapidly over just eight days on the ancestral homelands of the federally-recognized Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and without the requisite analysis under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and an environmental impact statement required under NEPA. According to court filings, ongoing construction and operations at the detention center risk spills that could pollute the surrounding wetlands and broader ecosystems.The detention center poses a serious threat to the sensitive ecological landscape and detainees face hundred-degree temperatures in cramped conditions with mosquitoes, lack of fresh food and water, and tents that are flooded with waste.
This ruling underpins the importance of Indigenous rights and the essential nature of bedrock laws like NEPA as a backstop to dangerous politically driven actions. In recent months, the Trump administration has weakened NEPA dramatically, and threats of Congressional efforts to reform permitting by further diminishing this bedrock law are ongoing. Coupled with continued attacks on environmental justice policies and programs, NEPA is a last line of defense in many circumstances.
Under the court ruling, the South Florida Detention Facility must shut down operations within 60 days, though the state of Florida has appealed the decision. “We welcome the court’s decision to pause construction on this deeply concerning project. The detention facility threatens land that is not only environmentally sensitive but sacred to our people,” said Miccosukee Tribe Chairman Talbert Cypress in an interview with Native News Online.
This is a major win for environmental, social justice, and immigration groups, and a testament to the Miccosukee Tribe’s success in protecting their lands. This is an important moment in the long legacy of Indigenous peoples’ battles in solidarity with allied movements against extractive industry and construction projects carried out without Free, Prior, and Informed Consent.
Leslie Fields, Chief Federal Officer of WE ACT for Environmental Justice shared,
“WE ACT for Environmental Justice stands with the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and supports the work of the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Everglades who successfully advocated to close the inhumane, unjust, and ecologically unsound detention center in Florida’s Big Cypress National Preserve.”
“We call on Congress members and the federal government to protect and respect regulatory legislation and tribal sovereignty. We celebrate this ruling and emphasize its lesson in the continued necessity of bedrock environmental laws like NEPA, and the need for comprehensive environmental justice policy. When environmental justice principles are upheld, interconnected injustices are addressed, and we can all live in greater dignity, health, and safety.”
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WE ACT for Environmental Justice is a Northern Manhattan-based, membership-driven organization whose mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and/or low-income residents are meaningfully included in the development of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices. WE ACT has offices in New York and Washington, D.C. Visit us at weact.org and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram.