Part of ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Restraining Order Tossed by Judge

A federal judge on Tuesday nixed the operative part of a temporary restraining order he imposed on the Trump administration, accepting the government’s assurances that money at issue in a lawsuit isn’t at risk of being used to pay for the new “Alligator Alcatraz” migrant detention facility.

Judge Matthew Kennelly of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois vacated the sentence in his order that barred the Department of Homeland Security from “reprogramming, transferring, de-obligating, or otherwise eliminating” Shelter and Services funding from Chicago, Denver, and Pima County, Ariz. The rest of the order is set to expire Wednesday.

Those jurisdictions sued earlier this year, saying the Trump administration removed funding Congress assigned them to provide services for migrants released from Homeland Security custody. Over the weekend, they asked Kennelly for a temporary restraining order, citing fears that the funding in question would be used to pay for the new detention center in Florida. Kennelly granted the order July 12.

Since the suit’s filing, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said a new migrant detention facility in Florida—the so-called Alligator Alcatraz—would be funded by money from the Shelter and Services Program, the plaintiffs have said. Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy (D) said legislators were notified of a plan to use funds from that program to “detain noncitizens,” according to the plaintiffs, which they said was an apparent reference to the facility.

But as administration attorneys wrote in a response and reiterated in court Tuesday, the detention center will be paid for with a fiscal year 2025 appropriation—not funds assigned to the plaintiffs in years past, which is the money at issue in the lawsuit.

Murphy referenced a provision under which “you can only transfer within that fiscal year,” Department of Justice attorney Patrick Johnson said. “In other words, it has nothing to do with prior years. Fiscal years 2023 and 2024 are closed.”

Attorneys for Chicago requested more concrete evidence that the money from years past wouldn’t be used, such as a signed declaration that the funds at issue aren’t being redirected.

Kennelly declined to extend the restraining order until the administration provided that, but said he’d “strongly urge” Johnson to “get into plaintiffs’ counsel’s hands whatever supporting documentation you have and material you’ve got.”

The case is City of Chicago v. Dep’t of Homeland Security, N.D. Ill., No. 1:25-cv-05463, hearing 7/15/25.