Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Trump administration officials said Friday they are unfazed by a federal judge’s order to begin dismantling the so-called Alligator Alcatraz migrant detention center in the Everglades because of a failure to study the facility’s environmental impact.
U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Williams late Thursday issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting more detainees from coming to the site, barring new construction and giving the state 60 days to remove many of its major elements.
“Here, there weren’t ‘deficiencies’ in the agency’s process. There was no process,” Williams wrote. “The (state) consulted with no stakeholders or experts and did no evaluation of the environmental risks and alternatives.”
Florida immediately appealed the decision by the Obama administration appointee, sending the dispute up to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. At a press conference Friday, DeSantis denounced Williams as an “activist judge” and dismissed the ruling as expected.
“We got news last night that we had a judge try to upset the apple cart with respect to our deportation and detainee center down in South Florida, Alligator Alcatraz,” DeSantis said. “This is not going to deter us.”
But environmentalists and a representative for the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians applauded Williams’ bluntly worded, 82-page opinion and said they are ready to continue their fight to shut down the facility.
“The weight of the law and public opinion is steadily phasing out this illegal, destructive detention camp, and we plan to work tirelessly to keep it that way,” Elise Bennett, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, told reporters Friday.
NEPA or no NEPA?
The opponents contend that the site proposed to eventually house upward of 5,000 detainees falls under the National Environmental Policy Act. That means before it could be opened, officials were required to prepare a full-bore environmental impact statement.
Environmental attorneys fighting the project also noted that Williams summarily rejected claims made by Florida and the federal government that the facility was not federally run or funded and therefore would not fall under the federal law.
Gleefully given its “Alligator Alcatraz” moniker by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, the controversial detention center came together quickly at a site formerly known as the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport.
The detention facility site is located within the Big Cypress National Preserve and is close to the Everglades National Park.
“The project site is within an environmentally sensitive freshwater wetland ecosystem of ecological significance for wildlife, such as the threatened wood stork, and the endangered Florida bonneted bat and the Florida panther,” Williams noted.
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that the judge “ignored” the fact that the site of the detention center had already been developed as an airport.
“This activist judge doesn’t care about the invasion of our country facilitated by the Biden administration, but the American people do,” McLaughlin said. “We have the law, the facts, and common sense on our side.”
Using emergency powers originally granted to deal with hurricanes, the Florida Division of Emergency Management seized control of the site on June 23. Two days later, DeSantis said the detention center could be funded by the federal government, Williams wrote in her ruling.
Preconstruction and construction activities began that week, without any environmental assessment or impact statement having been prepared. Williams identified this as a fatal flaw, given the project’s scope.
“Operation of the camp, to date, has involved paving approximately 800,000 square feet of land, installation of industrial lighting impacting the night sky at least 20 to 30 miles away, and enough residential infrastructure to house thousands of detainees and on-site staff,” Williams noted.
If upheld on appeal, the preliminary injunction would have the effect of shutting down the detention facility in two months because that’s how long the judge allowed for removal of the lighting, generators, gas, sewage, and other project elements.
Citing the federal government’s characterization of the facility as designed for “temporary” detention, Williams said she expected “attrition” as detainees’ departures would naturally reduce the population.
State vs. federal
State and federal officials had insisted the detention facility is strictly a state project and therefore not covered by the National Environmental Policy Act. Williams rejected the claim as fanciful, taking note of the myriad federal connections.
The project, Williams recounted, was built with a promise of federal funding. It was built in compliance with federal standards, staffed by guards who are deputized Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and filled with detainees brought to the site by federal agents.
“In concluding the camp is a major federal action, the Court will adhere to the time-tested adage: if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck, then it’s a duck,’” Williams wrote.
Williams observed that neither the state nor federal authorities “endeavored to explain their decision to abstain” from conducting an environmental study. Instead, they stressed that federal funding hadn’t yet been directly provided to support the project.
“This contention runs contrary to significant evidence … that the facility’s construction was requested and fully funded by the federal government,” Williams wrote.
Curtis Osceola, a senior policy adviser at the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians, said the ruling is welcome news for the tribe, whose members have been traumatized by the development of the facility on their homeland. The tribe, which intervened in the case, was not consulted on the project by state or federal officials, he said.
“We’re really disappointed that we had to go this route,” Osceola told reporters. “Last night’s order really vindicates the tribe’s rights.”
