A federal judge may pause operations at Alligator Alcatraz as protests grow and nonprofits sue over conditions and impact.

Experts are concerned about the dangerous conditions at Alligator Alcatraz, the immigrant detention center that opened Tuesday in the Florida Everglades. Hurricanes, flooding, and mosquitoes pose a more likely threat to people incarcerated there than the alligators and snakes that President Donald Trump has “joked” about.

With Florida's so-called Alligator Alcatraz now open, another migrant detention facility roughly 400 miles north of the original is already planned in the Everglades.