‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Concerns Prompt Block on Funding Transfer

A federal judge in Chicago has temporarily barred the Trump administration from redirecting funds intended to support services for migrants in Chicago, Denver, and Pima County, Ariz., after attorneys raised concerns that the money would instead go toward funding the new “Alligator Alcatraz” detention facility.

Judge Matthew Kennelly of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois prohibited the government from “reprogramming, transferring, de-obligating, or otherwise eliminating” Shelter and Services Program funds allocated to the three jurisdictions, which sued the administration in May in hopes of stopping the government from withholding those funds.

The plaintiffs filed an emergency motion over the weekend for a temporary restraining order, saying they asked for assurances that the money wouldn’t be redirected toward the new Florida detention center but didn’t receive an answer.

Shelter and Services funds are intended to reimburse municipalities “for some of the cost of providing humanitarian assistance to migrants processed and released by DHS into the United States,” the plaintiffs’ memorandum in support of the temporary restraining order says. “FEMA cannot repurpose this humanitarian funding to reimburse Florida for the cost of detaining the very same migrants whom Congress sought to help through SSP.”

Kennelly’s July 12 restraining order expires Wednesday evening, but could be extended at a hearing slated for Tuesday.

The case is City Of Chicago v. Dep’t of Homeland Security, N.D. Ill., No. 1:25-cv-05463, order 7/12/25.