Florida has scored a significant victory in its push to bolster immigration enforcement with the opening of a state-run detention facility deep in the Everglades. On Thursday, the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay on a lower court’s injunction that threatened to dismantle the site known as Alligator Alcatraz, allowing operations to continue while the case proceeds.
The facility, which Florida launched in July as the first of its kind operated entirely by a state rather than the federal government, has been a flashpoint in the ongoing debate over border security. It houses migrants detained by federal authorities but managed under state control, a model that other states are now eyeing to address what many see as federal shortcomings in handling illegal immigration. At its peak, the center held around 1,000 detainees, though numbers had dipped amid legal uncertainty.