The Florida detention camp known as Alligator Alcatraz is being run illegally by state workers who are holding immigrants “off the grid,” the American Civil Liberties Union said in a new lawsuit filed hours after a judge in a different case ruled the facility must be dismantled.

Immigrants' rights advocates have filed a federal lawsuit challenging Florida's authority to detain people at the Alligator Alcatraz detention center, citing unsafe and unsanitary conditions, and arguing that the state is violating federal law by attempting to run its own immigration detention system.

Deep in the Everglades, in a patch of swamp surrounded by snakes, alligators and relentless mosquitoes, Florida has opened a makeshift detention center that critics say is unlike anything the country has seen before.