Protecting the Everglades from a Massive Detention Center

The detention center plan has gone through no environmental review as required under federal law, and the public has had no opportunity to comment. The Everglades is the largest mangrove ecosystem in the Western Hemisphere.

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Case Overview

Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity sued in U.S. District Court to protect the Florida Everglades from a reckless plan for a massive detention center to confine people who are rounded up in immigration raids.

The suit was filed against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Florida Division of Emergency Management, and Miami-Dade County.

Despite the plan going through no environmental review as required under federal law, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has plowed ahead with developing the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, roughly two hours west of Miami, and one hour east of Naples, in hopes of detaining up to 5,000 people there.

The Everglades is the largest continuous stand of sawgrass prairie and the most significant breeding ground for wading birds in North America. In 2010, it was designated as an endangered UNESCO World Heritage site.

Friends of the Everglades is represented by Earthjustice and attorneys Scott Hiaasen and Paul Schwiep.

A heron takes flight over wetlands in the Everglades in Florida.
A heron takes flight over wetlands in the Everglades in Florida. (Brian Lasenby / Shutterstock)

Case Updates

A heron takes flight over wetlands in the Everglades in Florida.
September 4, 2025 Update

We’re Fighting to Protect the Everglades from a Massive Detention Center

Florida and the Trump administration have been ramming through the construction of an immigration detention facility within the Florida Everglades, the largest mangrove ecosystem in the Western Hemisphere.

The migrant detention facility at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility in the Everglades on July 4, 2025, in Ochopee, Fla.
August 21, 2025 Press Release: Victory

Judge Halts Operations at Everglades Detention Center with Preliminary Injunction

Decision means the facility must wind down operations in an orderly fashion within 60 days

August 7, 2025 Press Release

Judge Hits I.C.E Everglades Detention Center with Temporary Restraining Order

The pause will last 14 days while court hearing continues on conservation groups’ motion for a preliminary injunction.