ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida is facing a financial quandary regarding the immigration detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” located in the Florida Everglades.
Recently, an appellate court temporarily overturned a lower court’s mandate that required the governor’s administration to cease operations at the facility.
This puts the state in a difficult situation: it must choose between forgoing federal reimbursement for the extensive expenses incurred in constructing and running the center or accepting the funds and consequently subjecting the center to an environmental assessment that might lead to the suspension of its operations.
The complication arises because the majority of the appellate court’s three-judge panel decided that, for now, the center isn’t obligated to conduct a federally mandated environmental impact assessment typically essential for building in sensitive wetland areas. The reason is that Florida hasn’t yet accepted federal funds for the project, even though officials have pledged to receive it.
Should Florida opt to accept the federal funds, the state might be compelled to carry out the environmental review, the judges indicated in their 2-to-1 ruling. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem mentioned on social media earlier this year that FEMA’s shelter and services program is primarily expected to fund the facility.
The law explicitly states that “the absence of federal funding categorizes an action as ‘non-federal’,” exempting it from an environmental analysis, the appellate panel majority noted.
The decision stayed a preliminary injunction by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams ordering the detention facility to wind down operations by late October while the case made its way through court. The stay is in effect pending appeal.
“Here, no federal dollars have been expended on the construction or use of the facility,” the appellate panel said. “So the Florida-funded and Florida-operated detention activities occurring at the site do not conceive a ‘major federal project’ either.”
When asked Tuesday about whether the appellate panel’s decision would impact the state’s application for federal funding, the governor’s office didn’t provide a direct answer. Instead, press secretary Molly Best sent video clips of DeSantis talking about “Alligator Alcatraz” on social media and in an interview with FOX host Sean Hannity. DeSantis didn’t discuss funding in either clip.
DeSantis’ administration in late June raced to build the facility on an isolated airstrip surrounded by wetlands to aid President Donald Trump’s efforts to deport people living in the U.S. illegally. Trump toured the facility in July and suggested it could be a model for future lockups around the nation as his administration pushes to expand the infrastructure needed to increase deportations. Other states have since announced plans to open their own immigration detention centers.
The environmental lawsuit is one of three federal lawsuits challenging operations at the detention center in the Everglades. A second Florida immigration detention center opened last week at a closed prison in north Florida.
“Florida taxpayers should not foot the bill for federal immigration services,” said Paul Schwiep, an attorney representing Friends of the Everglades, one of the environmental groups that sued Florida and the U.S. government. “Judge Williams believed the governor when he said the federal government would fund the work, and believed Secretary Noem when she said the same. Meanwhile, the majority on appeal essentially said we can’t believe politicians when they make such statements.”
Elise Bennett, a senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, another environmental group that is a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said she saw another possibility in the ruling that would allow the DeSantis administration and DHS “to have their cake and eat it too.”
The appellate majority is signaling that a federal agency can withhold reimbursement until a project is completed, “and by the time they formalize that payment, the damage is done and the analysis has little to no value,” Bennett said.
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