ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is facing a funding dilemma over the immigration detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz” built in the Florida Everglades.
Last week, an appellate court panel temporarily blocked a lower court decision ordering the governor’s administration to wind down operations at the facility.
But the ruling sets up a predicament: The state can either pass up federal reimbursement for hundreds of millions of dollars spent to build and operate the facility, or take the money and face an environmental review, which would risk halting the center’s operations.
That’s because a majority of the three-judge appellate panel decided for the time being that the facility doesn’t have to undergo a federally required environmental impact study normally needed to build on sensitive wetlands. Why? Because Florida has yet to receive federal money for the project, despite officials having promised it.
If Florida takes the federal money, then the state may need to conduct the environmental analysis, the judges wrote in their 2-to-1 decision. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on social media this summer that the facility would largely be funded by FEMA’s shelter and services program.
The law makes clear that “the absence of federal funding renders an action ‘non-federal’” and not subject to an environmental review, the appellate panel majority said.
The decision stayed a preliminary injunction by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams ordering the detention facility to wind down operations by late October while the case made its way through court. The stay is in effect pending appeal.
“Here, no federal dollars have been expended on the construction or use of the facility,” the appellate panel said. “So the Florida-funded and Florida-operated detention activities occurring at the site do not conceive a ‘major federal project’ either.”
When asked Tuesday about whether the appellate panel’s decision would impact the state’s application for federal funding, the governor’s office didn’t provide a direct answer. Instead, press secretary Molly Best sent video clips of DeSantis talking about “Alligator Alcatraz” on social media and in an interview with FOX host Sean Hannity. DeSantis didn’t discuss funding in either clip.
DeSantis’ administration in late June raced to build the facility on an isolated airstrip surrounded by wetlands to aid President Donald Trump’s efforts to deport people living in the U.S. illegally. Trump toured the facility in July and suggested it could be a model for future lockups around the nation as his administration pushes to expand the infrastructure needed to increase deportations. Other states have since announced plans to open their own immigration detention centers.
The environmental lawsuit is one of three federal lawsuits challenging operations at the detention center in the Everglades. A second Florida immigration detention center opened last week at a closed prison in north Florida.
“Florida taxpayers should not foot the bill for federal immigration services,” said Paul Schwiep, an attorney representing Friends of the Everglades, one of the environmental groups that sued Florida and the U.S. government. “Judge Williams believed the governor when he said the federal government would fund the work, and believed Secretary Noem when she said the same. Meanwhile, the majority on appeal essentially said we can’t believe politicians when they make such statements.”
Elise Bennett, a senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, another environmental group that is a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said she saw another possibility in the ruling that would allow the DeSantis administration and DHS “to have their cake and eat it too.”
The appellate majority is signaling that a federal agency can withhold reimbursement until a project is completed, “and by the time they formalize that payment, the damage is done and the analysis has little to no value,” Bennett said.
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