Environmental advocates believe the anticipated shutdown of an immigration detention facility located in Florida’s Everglades within the coming month or two is strategically timed, coinciding with their legal challenge returning to a federal judge who had previously mandated its closure.
Last month, a federal appeals court ruled to temporarily maintain operations at the detention facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” overturning a lower court ruling that had ordered the facility to cease operations. However, the case has been returned to the original district judge who will now oversee the ongoing legal proceedings regarding the facility’s future.
“Knowing that the same district judge who previously enjoined the operation would soon reassume oversight — the defendants are now effectively waving the white flag,” said Paul Schwiep, an attorney for the environmental groups that had sued, saying the facility’s construction hadn’t undergone a required environmental review.
During questioning about the state-operated facility and its expenses on Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis stated he had not received any “official word” that federal authorities plan to cease sending detainees to the center.
However, suppliers and contractors working with the facility have been informed that operations could end as early as next month, according to Tuesday reports from The New York Times and CBS News Miami. The Florida Department of Emergency Management, which oversees the detention center, did not respond to email requests for comment on Wednesday. The Republican governor’s press secretary, Molly Best, directed facility-related questions to the state emergency management agency.
“We didn’t build any permanent facilities down there because we knew it was going to be temporary,” DeSantis said Wednesday at a news conference in Titusville, Florida.
The facility was established by DeSantis’ administration last July to assist with immigration enforcement efforts under the administration of President Donald Trump, who toured the detention center during the summer. Legal representation for two detainees has alleged that guards subjected detainees to severe beatings and pepper spray attacks. Additional detainees have reported finding worms in meals, non-functioning toilets, and widespread presence of mosquitoes and other insects.
“This monument to cruelty, waste and environmental and tribal lands abuse should have never been built,” U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat from Florida, said Tuesday.
Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity filed suit against state and federal officials shortly after the facility began operations, arguing that the remote airstrip location in the Everglades did not receive proper environmental assessment mandated by federal law before being converted into an immigration detention center. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams in Miami sided with the plaintiffs and ruled in August that the facility must cease operations within two months.
The appeals court halted that ruling, determining that the Florida-operated facility was not under federal jurisdiction and therefore exempt from federal environmental impact assessment requirements.
However, the appellate court specified that once Florida receives federal reimbursement for the facility, it would need to follow federal environmental regulations, Schwiep explained.
DeSantis announced Tuesday that the state anticipates receiving $608 million in federal reimbursement, which FEMA has already approved.
“There’s no negotiations on that,” he said.
