Progress on Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” ground to a halt on Thursday, August 7, when a federal judge ordered a two-week ban on construction. The ruling follows a hearing in a lawsuit by environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians.
The plaintiffs—Earthjustice, the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Everglades, and the Miccosukee—allege that hasty construction of the facility in the Everglades unlawfully moved forward without public input or an environmental impact statement. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams temporarily barred installation of new industrial-style lighting, paving, filling, excavating, or any other site expansion at the facility while she considers the case, the Associated Press reports.
“We’re pleased that the judge saw the urgent need to put a pause on additional construction, and we look forward to advancing our ultimate goal of protecting the unique and imperiled Everglades ecosystem from further damage caused by this mass detention facility,” Friends of the Everglades Executive Director Eve Samples said following Williams’s order, according to NPR.
Florida opened the makeshift facility to accommodate the Trump administration’s mass arrests of immigrants. The detention center sprung up on a lightly used, single-runway training airport in the Florida Everglades in June, coming together in just eight days. In its current capacity, it can hold up to 3,000 detainees in temporary tent structures, the Associated Press reports, though officials have said it will ultimately hold up to 5,000.
In July, the Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times obtained a list of more than 700 people who were either already detained at the facility or scheduled to be sent there. The temporary construction ban does not affect any current or incoming detainees, CBS News reports.
The suit claims construction of Alligator Alcatraz threatens the Big Cypress Area, an ecologically sensitive part of the greater Everglades ecosystem that contains the Big Cypress National Preserve. This area serves as a habitat for numerous endangered and threatened species, including the Florida panther, Florida bonneted bat, Everglades snail kite, and wood stork, the suit states. The plaintiffs also allege the project would reverse more than $20 billion worth of state and federally funded environmental restoration efforts.
The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians have lived within this region of the Everglades for generations and joined the suit to protect their native land, according to Inside Climate News. Ten Miccosukee villages sit within a 3-mile (5-kilometer) radius of the detention center, one of which is just 1,000 feet (300 meters) from the facility, ICN reports. “This place, it’s my home, and I wouldn’t have any other home than the Everglades,” Betty Osceola, a 57-year-old tribe member, told ICN. “I think the barbaric thing that is going on is what DeSantis and Trump are creating.”
The plaintiffs’ legal case hinges on their claim that Florida and the Trump administration violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by failing to hold hearings, take public comment, or conduct an environmental impact study before breaking ground on the project. During the Thursday hearings, Justice Department attorney Marissa Priopato told Williams that federal law does not apply in this case because Alligator Alcatraz is controlled by Florida, NPR reports.
Paul Schwiep, an attorney for the environmental groups, argued that the detention center wouldn’t exist if not for the federal government’s desire for a facility to hold detainees, according to the AP. Williams agreed that the detention facility was, at minimum, a joint partnership between the state and federal government. It’s also worth noting that while Florida is covering the cost of construction and operations of the facility, the state is expected to seek reimbursement from the Trump administration, NPR reports. As these arguments play out in court over the next two weeks, the future of the project will remain in limbo.
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