ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The federal government over the weekend asked a judge in Miami to put on hold her ruling ordering the winding down of an immigration detention center built by the state of Florida in the Everglades wilderness and nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz,” pending an appeal of her decision.
Attorneys for the Department of Homeland Security said in their request for a stay that U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams’ order last week, if carried out, would disrupt the federal government’s ability to enforce immigration laws. They asked the judge to rule on their request by Monday evening.
The request came as a third lawsuit challenging practices at the facility was filed Friday by civil rights groups who claimed the state of Florida had no authority to run an immigration detention center.
In a statement supporting the request for a stay, Garrett Ripa, field office director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s enforcement and removal operations in Miami, said that the Everglades facility’s 2,000 beds were badly needed since detention facilities in Florida were overcrowded.
“Its removal would compromise the government’s ability to enforce immigration laws, safeguard public safety, protect national security, and maintain border security,” Ripa said.
The environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe, whose lawsuit led to the judge’s ruling, opposed the request. They disputed in a court filing Monday that the Everglades facility was needed, especially as Florida plans to open a second immigration detention facility in north Florida which Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has dubbed, “Deportation Depot.” During a tour of the Everglades facility last week, U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost was told that only a fraction of the detention center’s capacity was in use, between 300 to 350 detainees, the Democratic congressman from Orlando said in a declaration on behalf of the environmental groups.
“Defendants’ arguments for a stay are hyperbolic, disingenuous, inconsistent, untimely, unsupported by any competent evidence, and contrary to the facts,” the environmental groups’ filing said.
The judge said in her order that she expected the population of the facility to decline within 60 days through the transferring of the detainees to other facilities, and once that happened, fencing, lighting and generators should be removed. She wrote the state and federal defendants can’t bring anyone other than those who are already being detained at the facility onto the property.
Environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe had argued that further construction and operations should be stopped until federal and state officials complied with federal environmental laws. Their lawsuit claimed the facility threatened environmentally sensitive wetlands that are home to protected plants and animals and would reverse billions of dollars spent over decades on environmental restoration.
The detention center was quickly built two months ago at a lightly used, single-runway training airport in the middle of the Everglades. State officials signed more than $245 million in contracts for building and operating the facility, which officially opened July 1.
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 needed to increase deportations.
A second lawsuit also was filed by civil rights groups last month against the state and federal governments over practices at the Everglades facility, claiming detainees were denied access to the legal system. Another federal judge in Miami last week dismissed parts of the lawsuit which had been filed in Florida’s southern district and then moved the remaining counts against the state of Florida to the neighboring middle district.
Civil rights groups last Friday filed a third lawsuit over practices at the facility in federal court in Fort Myers, asking for a restraining order and a temporary injunction that would bar Florida agencies and their contractors from holding detainees at “Alligator Alcatraz.” They described “severe problems” at the facility which were “previously unheard-of in the immigration system.” Detainees were being held for weeks without any charges, they had disappeared from ICE’s online detainee locator and no one at the facility was making initial custody or bond determinations, the civil rights groups said.
“Lawyers often cannot find their clients, and families cannot locate their loved ones inside ICE’s vast detention system,” the civil rights attorneys said. “Detainees have been prevented from accessing attorneys in numerous ways. Detainees without counsel have been cut off from the normal channels of obtaining a lawyer.”
Immigration is a federal issue, and Florida agencies and the private contracts hired by the state have no authority to operate the facility, the civil rights groups argued in asking that their lawsuit be certified as a class action.
The civil rights attorneys described harsh conditions at the facility, including flooding, mosquitoes, lack of water and exposure to the elements as punishment. At least 100 people already have been deported from the facility, including several who were pressured to sign voluntary removal forms without being able to consult with attorneys, they said.
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