U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams on Thursday issued a temporary restraining order requiring the Trump Administration to halt construction, stop bringing new detainees, and begin shutting down operations at the mass detention facility in Florida’s Big Cypress National Preserve nicknamed Alligator Alcatraz
The facility, heralded as the cornerstone of President Trump’s immigration crackdown, is tucked away amidst protected lands that make up part of the Everglades ecosystem
“Immigration is at the forefront of national and state politics: As the swell of people seeking refuge and opportunities in our nation steadily increases, the government is under a corresponding pressure to respond and regulate,” Williams wrote in her 82-page ruling in the Southern District of Florida. She also noted that state and federal governments “offered little to no evidence” why building a detention center in the Everglades was necessary.
“What is apparent, however,” she wrote, “is that in their haste to construct the detention camp, the state did not consider alternative locations” for the facility, meant to be the nation’s first state-run detention center for federal immigration detainees.
Williams’ ruling is rooted in a June 27 lawsuit filed by environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe against the Florida Division of Emergency Management, the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, and Miami-Dade County. It argued that the facility posed a threat to environmentally sensitive wetlands that are home to protected plants and animals and would ultimately undo billions of dollars’ worth of environmental restoration.
“The project creates irreparable harm in the form of habitat loss and increased mortality to endangered species in the area,” Williams wrote.
Her preliminary injunction is a temporary order put in place until a court can make a final decision in the case. It gives the government 60 days to move out existing detainees and start taking down the fencing and lighting, in addition to “all generators, gas, sewage, and other waste and waste receptacles that were installed to support this project.”
The order also prohibits any new construction on the site.
The state of Florida filed a notice of appeal Thursday night, shortly after the ruling was issued.
Alex Lanfranconi, a spokesperson for Gov. Ron DeSantis said: “The deportations will continue until morale improves.”
With News Wire Services
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