The Trump administration is removing immigrants from Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center after a federal judge ordered operations downsized by late October.
The Department of Homeland Security announced the move after U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams’ Aug. 21 order prohibiting authorities from bringing new detainees to the facility and giving 60 days to remove fencing, lighting fixtures, generators and all sewage and fuel storage.
Kathleen Williams
The ruling directed the state and federal governments to comply “in a safe, humane, and responsible manner” that includes barring any heavy traffic at the Everglades facility located in Big Cypress National Preserve.
The intent is to minimize further environmental damage and to provide members of the Miccosukee Tribe “access to the site consistent with the access they enjoyed before the erection of the detention camp,” Williams said in the 82-page order.
Williams’ decision stems from a lawsuit filed in June by activists against DHS, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Florida Division of Emergency Management and Miami-Dade County. The county owns the little-used airport where the detention facility is located.
Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity demanded the agencies conduct the environmental impact study required under the National Environmental Protection Act. Later joined by the Miccosukee Tribe, the suit also cited violations of the National Historic Preservation Act and Administrative Procedures Act.
Following an unsuccessful motion requesting Williams to stay her order, Florida attorneys filed an appeal with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Aug. 26.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state and federal governments have not been treated fairly by Williams, NBC News reported.
“This was preordained, very much an activist judge that is trying to do policy from the bench,” he complained. “This is not going to deter us. We’re going to continue working on the deportations, advancing that mission. We knew that this would be something that would likely happen, and we will respond accordingly.”
But a high-ranking state official said the detention facility will be empty in a few days, the Associated Press reported Aug. 27.
“In a message sent to South Florida Rabbi Mario Rojzman on Aug. 22 related to providing chaplaincy services at the facility, Florida Division of Emergency Management Executive Director Kevin Guthrie said, ‘We are probably going to be down to 0 individuals within a few days,’ implying there would soon be no need for the services.”
Guthrie’s office did not respond when asked for confirmation, although DeSantis insinuated the declining detainee population at “Alligator Alcatraz” is the result of rapid deportations, Florida Politics reported.
Democrats welcomed the development but also lamented the opening of the facility in July.
Frederica Wilson
“After so much pressure from me and my colleagues, finally Alligator Alcatraz is closing down. It’s about damn time,” said U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla. “It was cruel, careless and destructive from the start and should have never been built.”
Maxwell Frost
U.S. Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, D-Fla., criticized the state for spending hundreds of millions to build and operate the detention center only to see it operate a few months.
“And just like that, $450 million of your taxpayer dollars down the drain. All for this cruel spectacle that nobody asked for,” he said.
Plaintiffs who filed the initial lawsuit said Williams’ decision will help protect the landscape and ecosystems threatened by the detention facility.
“This decision sends a clear message that environmental laws must be respected by leaders at the highest levels of our government — and there are consequences for ignoring them,” said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades.
Supporters already have contributed $200,000 to the new Everglades Defense Fund launched to fund future legal work, her organization added. “The fight isn’t over — the state and federal government already filed their appeal. We have a strong team ready to fight it.”
Betty Osceola
Citizens of the Miccosukee Tribe see Williams’ order in line with treaty and lease agreements granting them full access to the Everglades, according to a report by IndiJ Public Media, a news organization covering issues affecting indigenous people.
“Honestly, this is just another battle in our decades-long, centuries-long battle to make sure our presence is still out there and we still have access to it (the Everglades),” tribal Secretary William “Popeye” Osceola said.
Tribal member Betty Osceola said the order is a win, but not the end of the fight.
“The preliminary injunction means that now, more than ever, we need to make sure our documentation is on point. Anything that’s coming in, we need to get it on film and footage because we may need it later on.”
Now the state faces another lawsuit challenging Florida’s authority to exercise control over immigration detainees at “Alligator Alcatraz.”
Filed Aug. 23, M.A. v. Guthrie accuses the state of taking on functions Congress intended exclusively for federal agencies except in narrow cases. The action is led by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Florida, Community Justice Project and National Immigration Justice Center.
“The lack of authority to operate the facility has resulted in unprecedented challenges that people in immigration detention typically do not face, including being held without charge, not receiving initial custody or bond determinations, not appearing in the detainee locator system, and not being able to access their attorneys or immigration court,” the ACLU explained.
“This facility has already become a disaster in the first few weeks of its operations, with mounting reports of disease, wrongful removals and people being denied all kinds of basic rights. This is exactly why Congress did not allow states to set up their own immigration facilities.”
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