Judge gives Trump administration and Florida partial victory in "Alligator Alcatraz" case

Source: CBS News/AP

Updated on: August 18, 2025 / 11:08 PM EDT


A federal judge on Monday tossed out part of a lawsuit brought by detainees at a temporary immigrant detention center in the Florida Everglades, handing a partial victory to the Trump administration and Florida state officials — though other challenges over "Alligator Alcatraz" are still pending.

Civil rights attorneys had sued the Trump administration and the state of Florida, seeking a preliminary injunction to ensure that detainees at the facility have confidential access to lawyers. It's the second lawsuit challenging practices at Alligator Alcatraz, a controversial detention facility that the Trump administration has cast as a symbol of its crackdown on illegal immigration — along with a suit arguing the facility had skirted environmental rules.

But after a hearing on Monday, Miami-based U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz dismissed one part of their suit that alleged the government was violating the Fifth Amendment because it hadn't made clear for weeks which immigration court had jurisdiction over Alligator Alcatraz, preventing detainees from filing court petitions. Ruiz ruled that this claim is now moot because the government has since said publicly that the court at the Krome Detention Center in South Florida will hear the detainees' claims. The Court can do no more," Ruiz wrote.

The judge did not dismiss several other claims that the government is violating the First Amendment by allegedly making it difficult for detainees to talk to their lawyers, especially in confidential settings. Ruiz said that continues to be a "live controversy." But he ordered the case to be transferred to a different federal court, because Alligator Alcatraz is technically within the boundaries of the Orlando-based Middle District of Florida.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/alligator-alcatraz-florida-everglades-judge-detainees-rights/

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45 judge. Misleading media framing.

The "partial victory" was merely that the government finally responded to/rectified one of the allegations, so the judge mooted it that part, and has now drop-kicked the case out of the Southern District of FL and into the Middle District.