TALLAHASSEE, Florida — A federal judge has scheduled an Aug. 5 hearing to decide whether to issue an order blocking activities at the newly built immigration detention center in the Everglades.
Details: U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. Williams, who took over the case last week, during a Monday status conference declined a request from environmental groups to issue an order immediately.
The groups, in their lawsuit, claim Alligator Alcatraz was opened at a training airport surrounded by Big Cypress National Preserve without reviews required under federal law. Before she hears testimony on the location, Williams said, she needs to decide a challenge raised Monday by the state that the lawsuit was filed improperly in Miami
Jesse Panuccio, a lawyer for state Emergency Management Executive Director Kevin Guthrie, wrote in a lawsuit response Monday that the case should have been filed in another federal court district because the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport is in Collier County, not Miami-Dade County.
