MIAMI (AP) — Construction of a makeshift immigrant detention center in the Florida Everglades dubbed “ Alligator Alcatraz ” could be halted indefinitely as a federal judge considered Wednesday whether building on sensitive wetlands violated environmental laws.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams ordered a 14-day halt on additional construction at the site while witnesses testify. The temporary order doesn’t include any restrictions on law enforcement or immigration enforcement activity.
The first phase of “Alligator Alcatraz” opened in July atop a lightly used, single-runway training airport. Less than 1,000 detainees were being held there as of last week, and it's designed to eventually hold up to 3,000 detainees.
President Donald Trump toured the facility last month and suggested it could be a model for future lockups nationwide as his administration races to expand the infrastructure necessary for increasing deportations.
Inside the compound’s large white tents, rows of bunkbeds are surrounded by chain-link cages. People held there say worms turn up in the food, toilets don’t flush and flood floors with fecal waste, while mosquitoes and other insects are everywhere. At times the air conditioners abruptly shut off in the sweltering heat. Detainees are said to go days without showering or getting prescription medicine, and can only speak to lawyers and loved ones by phone.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has said the location in the rugged and remote Everglades was meant as a deterrent from escape, much like the island prison in California that Republicans named it after. The detention center has an estimated annual cost of $450 million, according to a public database.
Attorneys for the state and federal government say that although the detention center would hold federal detainees, its construction and operation is entirely under the state of Florida, meaning a federal environmental review wouldn’t apply.
However, the lawsuit by environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe says it makes no difference that Florida built the facility, since federal agencies have authority over immigration.
Williams last week said the detention facility was, at a minimum, a joint partnership between the state and federal government.
Plaintiffs presented witnesses Wednesday and Thursday who testified that the facility violates the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federal agencies to assess the environmental effects of major construction projects.
The lawsuit asks the judge to issue a preliminary injunction to halt operations and further construction, which the plaintiffs say threatens environmentally sensitive wetlands that are home to protected plants and animals and would reverse billions of dollars’ worth of environmental restoration.
Witnesses for the environmental groups have testified that at least 20 acres (8 hectares) of asphalt have been added to the site since the Florida Division of Emergency Management began construction. They said additional paving could lead to an increase in water runoff to the adjacent wetlands, spread harmful chemicals into the Everglades and reduce the habitat for endangered Florida panthers.
Marcel Bozas, director of the Miccosukee Tribe's fish and wildlife department, said tribe members hunt and fish for subsistence and cultural reasons.
David Kerner, the head of the state’s Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, testified that “Alligator Alcatraz” is a state-run facility and said Washington doesn’t tell Florida where to detain immigrants. He said the detention center was needed to alleviate overcrowding at other lockups.
Kerner couldn't say whether any other sites besides the Everglades were considered for possible detention centers, or how many detainees there have been charged with violent crimes.
The lawsuit was being heard as DeSantis′ administration was apparently preparing to build a second immigration detention center at a Florida National Guard training center in north Florida.
A second lawsuit claims detainees’ constitutional rights are being violated because they are barred from meeting lawyers, are being held without any charges, and a federal immigration court has canceled bond hearings. Over the weekend, a federal judge gave the state until late September to prepare arguments against an effort to get the civil rights litigation certified as a class action.
David Fischer, The Associated Press
