Alligator Alcatraz can remain open, the appeals court rules, denying a call for review
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“Alligator Alcatraz,” the country’s immigration detention center The Florida Evergladescan remain open, an appeals court ruled Tuesday, upholding its earlier decision to block a judge’s order that the facility shut down operations for failing to comply with federal environmental law.
In a 2-1 decision, the majority in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals found that the state-owned property was not under federal control and was not subject to federal law requiring an environmental impact review.
“Florida, not federal, officials created this facility,” the majority wrote. “They control the land and ‘absolutely’ build the area at the government’s expense.”
The legal dispute centers in part on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a federal law that requires agencies to assess environmental impacts before major actions.
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The appeals court found that the state-owned property was not subject to federal jurisdiction and was not required to comply with federal law requiring an environmental impact review. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
The court wrote that Florida did not receive federal reimbursements when US District Judge Kathleen Williams issued the first order to phase out the work last year. Williams had discovered that the government’s repatriation program had been successfully implemented.
An appeals court temporarily suspended Williams’ order days after it was issued in August, pending a hearing, which began earlier this month.
In dissenting from a recent appeals court decision, Judge Nancy Abudu wrote that immigration is a federal responsibility and the federal government cannot abdicate its authority just because Florida officials are building an immigration detention center.
“This facility could not, and would not, have been built and used as a detention center for immigrants without the defendants’ request,” Abudu said. “The evidence for federal control is perhaps most evident when we acknowledge that immigration remains exclusive and within the federal government.”
The detention center was built last year by the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis to support President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. (Getty Images)
The two environmental organizations that filed the lawsuit – Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity – say they will continue to pursue the case as it returns to Williams for further trial.
“This fight is far from over,” said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, in a statement. “Alligator Alcatraz was quickly installed in one of the most fragile habitats in the country without a basic environmental review at great human and environmental cost.”
The facility is located at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, an area surrounded by protected wetlands within the Everglades ecosystem, according to court filings.
Sunshine State officials are also building a second one immigration detention center in northern Florida.
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Environmental advocates are protesting the “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention center in Florida. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)
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Earlier this month, the lawyer of the two immigrants detained in “Alligator Alcatraz” in a court statement said that the guards severely beat the prisoners and sprayed them with pepper, causing injuries to their heads, shoulders and wrists.
“Police officers assaulted several people during this incident and broke the wrist of one of the detainees,” attorney Katherine Blankenship wrote.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
