Appeals Court Blocks Judge’s Attempt to Shut Down Alligator Alcatraz, Exposes Radical Activists’ Absurd Claims

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has slapped down a lower court’s attempt to shutter the Alligator Alcatraz detention facility in the Florida Everglades, issuing a stay that keeps the center open while the case moves forward.

Last month, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams—an Obama appointee—ordered the facility’s closure, suggesting that inmates would be relocated within 60 days and that fencing, lighting, and generators would be dismantled soon after, according to WOFL.

Her ruling was based on a lawsuit filed by left-wing environmentalists and the Miccosukee Tribe, who claimed the facility could somehow harm the Everglades.

But the appeals court wasn’t buying it.

“After careful consideration we GRANT the Defendants’ motions, and we STAY the preliminary injunction and the underlying case itself pending appeal,” the judges wrote, halting Williams’ order.

The court also took aim at the flimsy arguments underpinning the lawsuit. Williams’ ruling cited alleged “light pollution affecting members’ ability to observe the night skies” and “noise pollution impacting members’ ability to observe and interact with wildlife.”

What she failed to mention, however, is that the site had long been a bustling airport before its conversion to a detention center — logging nearly 28,000 takeoffs and landings in just six months, with 24/7 lights and no noise restrictions. In other words, the environmental concerns activists waved around were nothing more than political theater.

Contrary to the activist narrative, the Trump administration and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis did not simply plop a prison into untouched wilderness. They repurposed an existing developed site, making the lawsuit’s claims look laughable.

Even the Department of Homeland Security called out the charade in a statement to Reuters:

“This lawsuit was never about the environmental impacts of turning a developed airport into a detention facility. It has and will always be about open borders activists and judges trying to keep law enforcement from removing dangerous criminal aliens from our communities, full stop.”

The case highlights the deeper problem of activist judges like Williams, who was handpicked by the Obama administration in 2011. Rather than applying the law, she has aligned herself with the left’s open-borders agenda, placing progressive politics above public safety and the rule of law.