Video above: DeSantis to open new immigration center in Florida Panhandle
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Florida authorities neglected to inform that they had sought federal funding for an immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz.” This omission resulted in a misleading perception for an appellate court panel, which temporarily halted a judge’s mandate to cease the facility’s operations, as per a lawsuit submitted on Monday.
The lawsuit, concerning public records, was brought in Tallahassee’s state court by Friends of the Everglades. Alongside another environmental group and the Miccosukee Tribe, they are litigating federal and state agencies. The accusation is that these agencies disregarded federal law mandating an environmental assessment for the center located in sensitive wetlands.
In agreement, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams decreed in August that the facility should cease operations within two months. However, this ruling was paused in early September when an appellate court panel in Atlanta issued a stay pending appeal results, thus permitting the facility to operate temporarily.
A majority on the three-judge panel claimed the state-operated facility didn’t require a federal environmental impact assessment as Florida had not yet received federal funds for the project.
“Should the federal entities decide to approve the funding request and compensate Florida for its related expenditures, they might first need to conduct an environmental impact study,” the judges wrote in their Sept. 4 stay decision.
Despite applying for federal aid on Aug. 7, Florida did not disclose this to the federal court judge or to the appellate panel and has yet to rectify the panel’s “misimpressions,” according to the public records lawsuit filed on Monday.
Earlier this month, federal officials confirmed that Florida had been approved for a $608 million reimbursement for the costs of building and running the immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades.
The public records lawsuit was seeking communications and documents between the state and federal governments, which Friends of the Everglades says has been withheld despite making numerous requests since June.
“Government officials in Florida have misled the public they are supposed to work for, and the Everglades have been harmed as a result,” Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, said in a statement.
A spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Emergency Management on Monday didn’t respond to a request for comment over the public records lawsuit.
Republican Gov. Ron 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 in the U.S. illegally. The governor said the location in the rugged and remote Everglades was meant as a deterrent against escape, much like the island prison in California that Republicans named it after.
Trump toured the facility in July and suggested it could be a model for future lockups nationwide as his administration pushes to expand the infrastructure needed to increase deportations.
