Alligator Alcatraz is still open
By Philip Cardella 21 April 2026
US 41 in Florida near Mile Marker 48
Alligator Alcatraz is still open. Video by TWIFL.
The lawsuit most people think shut the facility down lost in court today
Despite persistent beliefs to the contrary, the South Florida Detention Center, commonly known by its racist nickname, Alligator Alcatraz, is open and as of last week has over 1300 detainees inside of it. Some of them have been in there since at least fall of 2025.
Kevin Boulandier
Fun fact, most if not all of the video in this segment, other than the anchor, I shot.
Just today a federal appeals court blocked the order to close the facility due to 2 of the 3 judges determining that “Federal officials made no construction decision capable of triggering the Act,” while U.S. Circuit Judge Nancy Abudu, nominated by former President Biden, dissented.
Associated Press
“It cannot, and should not, be the case that the federal government, which all parties agree has exclusive control over the detention of migrants, can abdicate its responsibility to exercise that control in a way that is consistent with federal law simply because, here, Florida has supported DHS and ICE in carrying out this endeavor,” Abudu wrote per The Hill.
The Friends of the Everglades and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, the plantiffs, are expected ask the 11th Circuit to review the new ruling or petition the Supreme Court to take up the case.
Jamie Ostroff
New torture and abuse allegations have come out in just the past two weeks
This week new allegations of torture (here are ones from 2025) have come out according to men who have spoken out and men who have been released.
Danielle Ong
CBS Miami
Landon Mion
South Florida US Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz managed to visit the facility last week and what she saw is consistent with the reports from the detainees.
Sergio R. Bustos
Despite the serious allegations of torture and abuse by no less than a sitting member of Congress (and two US Senators conducting their own investigation), the lawsuit that keeps making the news has no bearing on that. According the the controlling opinion in the lawsuit, the fact that ICE and Customs and Border Patrol are effectively running the facility also has no bearing.
“Ongoing control of operations—and the provision of technical support for those operations—is irrelevant to whether the construction of the facility required an environmental review,” the author of the court's opinion, Judge Pryor wrote.
As the Bulkwark put it this month, "We forget about 'Alligator Alcatraz' at our own peril."
The lawsuit trying to shut it down–the one most people think DID shut it down–has faced significant hurdles upon appeal
The lawsuit brought by the Friends of the Everglades and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, they same coalition that stopped the world's largest airport from being built on the site in the early 1970s, is based on environmental concerns.
Jacopo Prisco
Notably, if the facility is a Federal facility it must be subjected to the very environmental review that all Federal sites face–and is based on the the findings in the lawsuit that stopped the airport in the 1970s.
ICE and a Customs and Border Patrol SUVs pull out of the South Florida Detention Center on 12 April 2026.
“This fight isn’t over,” Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, told The Hill in an email.
Every Sunday since Alligator Alcatraz opened, an interfaith prayer vigil has been held outside the gates
Readers of This Week in Florida know that ever since the South Florida Detention Center opened it has received a lot of my attention–and, I'd argue, for good reason.
This is Arianne Betancourt. Her father has been in ICE Detention, mostly in Alligator Alcatraz, since October 29, 2025. He was detained at a routine immigration check in. He has diabetes, which is not being treated.
Her father, Justo, is on ICE's list of "worst of the worst." Sounds bad. He served his time for relatively minor offenses that ICE left crucial details out of in their description of him, finished his parole over a decade ago. He has no criminal record since–he has been an upstanding resident of Miami.
This is Michelle. Her father has been in the so-called Alligator Alcatraz since November 6th of 2025. Raised from a young child in the United States, he committed a crime and finished his sentence twenty years ago. He was detained at a check in he voluntarily went to. On Sunday he has been in Alligator Alcatraz 164 days according to his daughter.
This is Roxana. Her husband was in the so called Alligator Alcatraz for almost six months until he was "released" earlier this month. Released is in quotes because he has to wear a "lojack" ankle monitor, but at least he gets to be with his one year old child.
