A federal judge late Thursday ordered Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention facility to be shut down within 60 days.
Detainees currently housed at the facility must be moved out within the time frame, as well as generators, fencing, and other construction materials.
Judge Kathleen M. Williams of the Federal District Court in Miami criticized the federal and state governments for not considering the facility’s environmental impacts.
Williams said the governments violated a federal law that requires an environmental review before any major federal construction project. She added that it damages the surrounding wetlands and communities that rely on the Everglades for their water supply.
“The project creates irreparable harm in the form of habitat loss and increased mortality to endangered species in the area,” she wrote.
The judge partly granted a preliminary injunction to environmentalists and the local Miccosukee Tribe.
The ruling is preliminary, and the state is expected to ask for a stay of the ruling. The Trump administration argued that the National Environmental Policy Act did not apply because the facility houses federal immigration detainees and is run by the state.
Gov. Ron DeSantis‘s (R-FL) administration said some of its authority to operate the center came from the federal government delegating its immigration enforcement powers to the state.
Williams concluded that because the center is subject to federal funding, standards, and direction, it is also subject to federal environmental laws. She wrote that the court will “adhere to the time-tested adage: If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck, then it’s a duck.”
DOZENS OF DEMOCRATS DEMAND INFORMATION FROM DHS ON ‘ALLIGATOR ALCATRAZ’
DeSantis was pessimistic that Williams would rule in their favor. “It’s pretty clear we’re in front of a judge who is not going to give us a fair shake on this,” he said on Tuesday.
Several other federal immigration camps have cropped up across the nation as the Trump administration seeks housing for its mass deportation agenda.
