Fla. AG Uthmeier said judge who sanctioned him should visit Alligator Alcatraz. She's down

Siena Duncan, Miami Herald on Aug 12, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

A Miami judge overseeing an environmental lawsuit seeking to shut down Alligator Alcatraz said Tuesday at the end of a contentious afternoon of witness testimony that she would like to take up Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on his invitation to visit the Everglades immigration detention center.

Surprising attorneys for the DeSantis administration, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams said she’d heard Uthmeier extend an invitation to visit the detention camp during an Aug. 8 Fox Business interview in which he referred to her as a “leftist, activist judge.”

“I invite the judges, come visit these facilities,” said Uthmeier, who also referenced a different federal lawsuit in Miami about detainees’ access to lawyers and courts.

Williams said she had interpreted the invitation to be serious. When the state’s lawyers said they had no knowledge of an official invitation, she said she had been in contact with the U.S. Marshals about a possible site visit and was prepared to go this week.

Williams dropped the issue when state lawyers reiterated their surprise.

The back-and-forth was the latest development in an ongoing saga between Uthmeier and Williams, an Obama appointee who held Uthmeier in contempt of court in June in a different lawsuit.

Williams sanctioned the attorney general for violating her restraining order on enforcing a Florida immigration law that criminalizes undocumented immigrants when they enter the state. He had written a letter to police agencies in April telling them “there remains no judicial order that properly restrains you from” making arrests under Florida’s immigration law, and said he would not tell law enforcement agencies to obey her court order.

His defiant comments on Fox News and other TV stations about Williams and her ruling drew the judge’s interest at the time. Based on her comments Tuesday, Williams is still watching Uthmeier’s statements on TV.

Uthmeier appealed her contempt order in late July, as well as her additional injunction on enforcing the law.

Tuesday’s hearing, a continuation of days of witness testimony about the environmental impacts of Alligator Alcatraz, was at times testy. The judge, who is weighing claims by the Miccosukee Tribe and environmental groups that the Trump administration skirted federal environmental regulations when it built the site, pushed for answers about federal involvement at Alligator Alcatraz.

She pressed the director of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles for more clarity on how state troopers are engaging in immigration enforcement activities.

She also pushed an attorney for the Department of Homeland Security about whether there is a legal agreement between the state and federal governments regulating oversight at Alligator Alcatraz. He told her there was no agreement, saying the various 287(g) agreements with state agencies govern the site. Under the 287(g) program, state officers are trained and certified to perform limited federal immigration duties. Florida officials have not yet said how many certified officers are working at the immigration detention site.

Williams asked for the name of the warden in charge of Alligator Alcatraz. State and federal lawyers couldn’t answer, but said they would find out.

Williams, who issued a ruling last week halting construction at Alligator Alcatraz for two weeks, is expected to wrap up a multiday hearing Wednesday afternoon. She is expected to rule on a motion by the plaintiffs to temporarily shut down operations at the immigration detention center until a thorough environmental review can be conducted.

_____

(Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau staff writer Ana Ceballos contributed to this report.)

_____