In a letter sent late Tuesday to the heads of the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and FEMA, the lawmakers expressed concern that the Trump administration's decision to use what lawmakers called a "novel state-run immigration detention model" could violate federal law and make the federal government less accountable for the conditions at immigrant detention centers.

A federal judge moved the Alligator Alcatraz lawsuit to a new court and dismissed claims over immigration hearings, citing changed circumstances.

"Putting people in tents in the middle of the Everglades is a great tool to make them give up their cases," said one immigration attorney

A Florida federal judge heard arguments about the conditions at "Alligator Alcatraz" detention center in the Everglades but gave no ruling or injunction.

A federal judge handed down a split decision Aug. 18 in a lawsuit brought by detainees at Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz.”

An alligator made a meal out of an invasive Burmese python at Shark Valley in the Florida Everglades, near Alligator Alcatraz, an ICE detention center