Florida choose kinds who’s answerable for ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6000x4000+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fb3%2F8a%2F5165840746dc96668d0677dfb3d1%2Fap25185553292413.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6000x4000+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fb3%2F8a%2F5165840746dc96668d0677dfb3d1%2Fap25185553292413.jpg" class="img" alt="The immigrant detention facility known as "Alligator Alcatraz" is shown on July 4, 2025 as construction was finishing at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition airport in the Florida Everglades." fetchpriority="high"/> The immigrant detention facility generally known as "Alligator Alcatraz" is proven on July 4, 2025, as building was ending on the Dade-Collier Coaching and Transition airport within the Florida Everglades. A lawsuit, introduced by environmental teams and the Miccosukee tribe, has challenged the enlargement and operations of the power. Rebecca Blackwell/AP conceal caption

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Rebecca Blackwell/AP MIAMI — A lawsuit introduced by environmental teams and the Miccosukee tribe difficult building and operations of an immigration detention heart within the Florida Everglades wrapped up Wednesday with a number of key questions unanswered.

On the prime of the record is one U.S. District Choose Kathleen Williams requested a number of instances through the four-day listening to, "Who's working the present?" on the so-called "Alligator Alcatraz."

Throughout the listening to, attorneys for 2 environmental teams cited feedback made by Trump administration officers in interviews and social media posts that it is an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility. In court docket, attorneys for Florida maintained it is a state detention heart working underneath ICE authority however could not inform the choose who really is in cost on the website.

Whereas immigration detentions and different operations on the facility will proceed because the authorized course of strikes forward, the query of who's in cost on the heart is necessary.

The environmental teams, Mates of the Everglades and the Middle for Organic Range, filed the lawsuit and had been joined by the Miccosukee tribe, which has conventional use and entry to the world. The three plaintiffs say the rushed building with out public enter or an environmental affect evaluation violate federal regulation and so they're asking the choose to close it down.

At subject is NEPA — the Nationwide Environmental Coverage Act — which requires federal businesses to think about alternate options, interact the general public and assess the environmental affect earlier than continuing with a challenge. Legal professionals for Florida and the Trump administration instructed the court docket that federal regulation would not apply as a result of the power was constructed and is operated by the state.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3900x2600+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff5%2F89%2Fa6441b614654986d71592f6a151e%2Fgettyimages-2225644107.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3900x2600+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff5%2F89%2Fa6441b614654986d71592f6a151e%2Fgettyimages-2225644107.jpg" class="img" alt="Protesters gather to demand the closure of the immigrant detention center known as "Alligator Alcatraz" at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Fla., on July 22, 2025." loading="lazy"/> Protesters collect to demand the closure of the immigrant detention heart generally known as "Alligator Alcatraz" on the Dade-Collier Coaching and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Fla., on July 22, 2025. Chandan Khanna/AFP through Getty Pictures conceal caption

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Chandan Khanna/AFP through Getty Pictures "This case boils down to regulate," Justice Division lawyer Adam Gustafson stated. And on the website, he stated, "The federal authorities has no motion or energy to regulate the exercise."

Paul Schweip, an legal professional with Mates of the Everglades, stated Florida and the Trump administration had been intentionally holding the query of who managed the location obscure. The detention heart he stated, "serves one single operate and that is immigration detention which as a matter of regulation is a federal authority."

The power, which has tents and caged cells for as much as 5,000 immigration detainees, is housed at a hardly ever used and largely deserted airfield positioned inside the wetlands of the Massive Cypress Nationwide Protect.

Throughout the listening to, attorneys for the environmental teams introduced testimony detailing the affect the elevated exercise and inhabitants on the website is having on protected species and the world's water high quality.

Randy Kautz, a wildlife ecologist who helped write the state's Panther Restoration plan, stated due to the intense lights, elevated visitors and human presence on the website, Florida panthers can be pushed out of not less than 2,000 acres of their habitat. There are solely an estimated 120 to 230 endangered panthers remaining in Florida.

Wetlands ecologist Christopher McVoy, who helped write the plan to revive the Everglades, raised considerations with the court docket about 20 acres of latest asphalt paving on the location and the affect it should have on water high quality within the fragile ecosystem. The Everglades ecosystem has a really low degree of nitrates and phosphates, vitamins that promote plant development, stated McVoy. Runoff containing vitamins and pollution, he stated, would have a "drastic affect" on native vegetation and close by wetlands.

Workers of the Miccosukee tribe testified on the affect the elevated exercise on the website is having on individuals who stay in tribal villages, a number of of that are positioned inside a number of miles of the power. They stated runoff from the location sometimes travels south towards the villages and is prone to comprise contaminants which will hurt the setting and human well being. They usually raised considerations in regards to the affect brilliant lights on the facility are having on one other endangered species, the bonneted bat.

The teams and the tribe are asking Choose Williams to subject a preliminary injunction that might require the state and federal authorities to take away lighting, fencing and waste from the location, restore entry for members of the Miccosukee and to wind down operations there inside 14 days.

The choose issued a two-week short-term restraining order Aug. 7 on new building on the facility. She stated she would rule on the request for a preliminary injunction earlier than that order expires.

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Florida choose kinds who’s answerable for ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ : NPR

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