DeSantis plans to challenge judge's ruling to shut down Alligator Alcatraz [View all]

[Zorro]

“The deportations will continue until morale improves,” the governor’s communications director said in a statement.

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration is planning to challenge a federal court ruling that would all but shut down the operations at Florida’s makeshift immigration detention camp in the Everglades within the next 60 days, an outcome that could set back the state’s immigration enforcement efforts.

At a news conference on Friday, DeSantis said the federal judge presiding over the case did not give the government a “fair shake” and said the state would “respond accordingly.”

“This was preordained, very much an activist judge that is trying to do policy from the bench,” he told reporters. “This is not going to deter us.”

The governor’s comments came less than a day after U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams ordered the state to stop taking in immigrant detainees at the Everglades detention camp, known as Alligator Alcatraz. The site, which was the first state-run immigration detention camp in the country, would also need to move out existing detainees and remove all generators, gas, sewage, lighting and fencing within the next nine weeks. As of Thursday, there were just shy of 400 detainees at Alligator Alcatraz.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2025/08/22/desantis-alligator-alcatraz-judge-immigrant-detention/