ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — One of the three court challenges to an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades has ended after the immigrant detainee who filed the lawsuit agreed to be removed from the United States and will be out of the country soon, his attorneys said.
The detainee at the facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” asked that his case in federal court in Fort Myers be dismissed Monday.
“Petitioner is no longer detained at Alligator Alcatraz, he has formally agreed to be removed, and he will soon have left the United States,” his attorneys wrote in a court motion. One of his attorneys, Spencer Amdur of the American Civil Liberties Union, said by phone Tuesday that the detainee, referred to only as M.A. in court documents, would be returning to Chile.
The lawsuit claimed that immigration was a federal issue, and Florida agencies and private contractors hired by the state had no authority to operate the facility under federal law. Detainees who entered the facility disappeared from the normal detainee tracking system and had difficulty accessing legal help, the lawsuit said.
Florida has led other states in constructing facilities to support President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. Besides the Everglades facility, which received its first detainees in July, Florida has opened an immigration detention center in the northeastern part of the state and is looking at opening a third facility in the Panhandle.
M.A. is married to a U.S. citizen and has five stepchildren who are U.S. citizens. He entered the United States in 2018 on a visa and later applied for asylum. Before his arrest last July, he had a work permit, a Social Security card and a driver’s license, according to court documents.
After his arrest, but before he was sent to the Everglades facility, officers pressured him to sign an English-only form that he didn't understand but was later told it was a voluntary removal form, according to court documents.
During his time at the Everglades detention facility, he was twice hospitalized and put in a wheelchair because of a condition in which he was unable to feel his legs. “M.A. entered the facility able to walk, but he is now in a wheelchair,” his lawsuit said.
M.A.’s case was one of three federal lawsuits challenging practices at the immigration detention center that was built last summer at a remote airstrip in the Florida Everglades by the administration of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
In a separate case, a federal judge in Miami last summer ordered the facility to wind down operations over two months because officials had failed to do a review of the detention center’s environmental impact. But an appellate court panel put that decision on hold for the time being, allowing the facility to stay open.
In the third lawsuit, detainees were seeking a ruling that would ensure that they have access to confidential communications with their attorneys. During an online meeting Tuesday, attorneys for the detainees and lawyers for the state and federal government defendants outlined plans for a hearing at the end of the month over a request for a preliminary injunction. ACLU attorneys said they would likely call former detainees at the facility now living outside the United States who would testify remotely as witnesses.
Follow Mike Schneider on the social platform Bluesky: @mikeysid.bsky.social
FILE - A loader holds a sign reading "Alligator Alcatraz" in its bucket as workers install it at the entrance to a new migrant detention facility at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility, July 3, 2025, in Ochopee, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Mike Tomlin era in Pittsburgh is over.
The longest-tenured head coach in major American professional sports stepped down from his job leading the Steelers on Tuesday after yet another quick playoff exit.
The announcement came a day after the end of his 19th season in Pittsburgh, where he was a relative unknown when he was hired to replace Bill Cowher in early 2007 before carving out his own Hall of Fame-worthy chapter in team history.
“I am deeply grateful to Art Rooney II and the late Ambassador (Dan) Rooney for their trust and support,” Tomlin said in a statement released by the team. “I am also thankful to the players who gave everything they had every day, and to the coaches and staff whose commitment and dedication made this journey so meaningful.”
Art Rooney II, who took over for his Hall of Fame father as team president in 2003, lauded Tomlin for his dedication to the franchise and his uncanny ability to churn out competitive teams year after year in an era when parity is the norm.
“It is hard for me to put into words the level of respect and appreciation I have for Coach Tomlin,” Rooney said in a statement. “He guided the franchise to our sixth Super Bowl championship and made the playoffs 13 times during his tenure, including winning the AFC North eight times in his career. His track record of never having a losing season in 19 years will likely never be duplicated.”
Tomlin won one Super Bowl and went to another during his first four seasons in Pittsburgh before the club settled into a pattern of solid if not always spectacular play followed by a playoff cameo that ended with the Steelers on the wrong side of a blowout.
The 53-year-old Tomlin won 193 regular-season games in Pittsburgh, tied with Hall of Famer Chuck Noll for the most victories in franchise history. But their resumes diverged when it comes to the playoffs. While Noll won four Super Bowls in the 1970s, Tomlin went just 8-12 in the postseason, losing each of his last seven playoff games, all by double-digit margins.
The last came Monday night, when the AFC North champions squandered some early momentum before getting drilled 30-6 by Houston, the most lopsided home playoff loss in team history.
There were chants of “Fire Tomlin!” as the clock kicked toward zero, though they weren't nearly as impassioned as they were in late November while the Steelers were getting pushed around by Buffalo in a loss that dropped their record to 6-6.
Tomlin did his best to tune out the noise and his team responded, the way it seemingly always did during his tenure. Pittsburgh won four of its final five games, including a sweep of Baltimore that gave the club its first AFC North title since 2020.
The optimism, however, dimmed once the Texans asserted themselves. The NFL's top-ranked defense suffocated Aaron Rodgers and Pittsburgh's offense while the league's highest-paid defense wilted late.
It was a familiar and frustrating pattern for a place where, as Tomlin noted not long after his introduction, “the standard is the standard.”
And while that remains the case for a team whose members walk by six Lombardi Trophies every day on the way to work, the results had plateaued. The Steelers finished with 9 or 10 wins in each of Tomlin's final five seasons, often doing just enough to squeak into the playoffs before being exposed by a more talented opponent.
Tomlin had two years left on the contract extension he signed in 2024, with the club holding the option for 2027.
His departure leaves the Steelers looking for a head coach for just the third time since they hired Noll in 1969.
Pittsburgh likely won't lack for attractive candidates. The club's stability — the team has had just three head coaches since 1969 — combined with its ability to remain competitive even without a franchise quarterback for the last half-decade means whoever gets the job will be given substantial leeway to get the team back to the top.
The announcement came as somewhat of a shock. Tomlin learned long ago to tune out his detractors, and in the final question he fielded as head coach, he painted an upbeat picture about the team's future.
“I'm always feel optimistic about what we’re capable of doing in terms of putting together a group, certainly,” he said Monday night.
And with that, he stepped off the dais and into a future that will not lack for options. Long one of the most charismatic people in football, Tomlin could step into television if he wants, as Cowher did after retiring, with no looking back.
Yet it seems just as likely that he will have his choice of jobs if or when he wants to coach again. Players defended Tomlin — almost uniformly popular within the locker room — to the end.
Tight end Pat Freiermuth called Tomlin “one of the best coaches I'll ever play for, probably the best. In my opinion his message hasn't got stale. I believe in him.”
Freiermuth added that his belief extended to general manager Omar Khan, who will be in charge of finding the right person for one of the most attractive coaching gigs in any league.
Tomlin's two predecessors are in the Hall of Fame. Tomlin could very well find himself getting fitted for a gold jacket of his own. Yet rather than try to come back next year and break Noll's record for regular-season wins, he opted to, as Noll once famously put it, “get on with his life's work.”
And the Steelers will try to find the right person to help them return to the standard that the franchise lives by, one it clutched at but never quite grasped during Tomlin's final years.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, right, stands on the sideline during the first half of NFL wild-card playoff football game against the Houston Texans, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin reacts after a Houston Texans touchdown during the second half of NFL wild-card playoff football game, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin yells before an NFL wild-card playoff football game against the Houston Texans, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
