MIAMI— The massive detention center in the heart of the Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz” is slated to be closed in June, according to reports from vendors at the facility. The facility was hastily constructed last summer and continues to operate illegally in Big Cypress National Preserve.

Tuesday’s report comes as Friends of the Everglades and Center for Biological Diversity are poised to return to court in early June when the court of appeals will return jurisdiction to the trial judge who temporarily paused operations last year.

“We won't let up until Alligator Alcatraz is shut down and its harm to the Everglades is completely remediated,” said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades. “This political stunt was a failure by every measure — our government failed the Everglades and failed taxpayers, and history will remember.”

It’s being reported that the detention center’s closure was announced to vendors at the facility today. If state and federal officials follow through, it would end a nearly year-long run in which the facility was used to detain people as part of the Trump administration’s immigration purge. In June 2025 conservation groups and the Miccosukee Tribe sued to stop the project.

“Alligator Alcatraz is a stain on our nation and a blight on the Everglades, and I look forward to watching this depraved facility bite the dust,” said Elise Bennett, Florida and Caribbean director and attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “We’re not going to let Florida and the Trump administration off the hook for the irreparable harm they’ve done to Big Cypress and the critically endangered creatures who live there. Now it’s time to push for full restoration and protection of this site so a travesty like this never happens again.”

The detention center site is surrounded on all sides by the Big Cypress National Preserve. The preserve protects ecologically sensitive wetlands and a dozen endangered and threatened species, including Florida panthers, bonneted bats and other endangered species, who were put at even greater risk of extinction. State and federal officials failed to conduct environmental reviews or permitting required by the Endangered Species Act before or since construction and operation began.

“State and federal officials responsible for this lawless detention center have to be held accountable,” said Tania Galloni, managing attorney for Earthjustice’s Florida regional office. “The cost to Florida’s environment, taxpayers and human decency have been too high to let them off the hook.”

The announced deadline to close the site by early June falls just days before the conservation groups and the Miccosukee Tribe can resume their lawsuit against the Trump administration in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida which had been stalled by the court of appeals. In addition to violations of the National Environmental Policy Act, National Historic Preservation Act and state laws, the plaintiffs also notified the defendants of their intent to challenge violations of the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act and National Park Service Organic Act.

“While it is welcome news that people will no longer be inhumanely confined at this facility, the damage caused by this reckless and ill-conceived endeavor cannot simply be abandoned and forgotten,” said Paul J. Schwiep of Coffey Burlington and counsel for Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity. “This project was recklessly advanced without any meaningful regard for the remote, environmentally sensitive and ecologically fragile landscape in which it was imposed. The fencing, lighting, paving and other infrastructure — all constructed without environmental permits, review, or analysis — must be removed, and any lingering harm remediated. We will continue pressing until full remediation is completed and this wild and irreplaceable area is restored and left undisturbed.”

Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, represented by Paul Schwiep, Scott Hiaasen, Earthjustice and Center for Biological Diversity attorneys, originally filed suit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Florida Division of Emergency Management and Miami-Dade County to stop the project as it was being hastily built with zero environmental review. The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, which has villages close to the unpermitted I.C.E. facility, joined the lawsuit.