A federal appeals court has cleared the way for the immigration detention facility known as Alligator Alcatraz to continue operating, while an environmental lawsuit against the facility plays out in a lower court.
The three-judge panel in Miami issued an opinion Tuesday that vacates an August injunction that ordered Alligator Alcatraz to wind down operations. That injunction had been on hold since September, when attorneys representing the State of Florida and the federal government appealed the injunction.
Friends of the Everglades, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida sued the Florida and federal governments last summer after the detention facility was built in eight days on an air strip, mostly used for pilot training, in the middle of the Florida Everglades.
The groups argued that the governments violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) because they did not conduct an environmental impact survey before building the detention camp. NEPA requires federal agencies to conduct those surveys before making a final decision on a construction project.
The state and federal governments pushed back, arguing that Alligator Alcatraz is a state project and therefore not subject to NEPA.
The facility is run by the Florida Division of Emergency Management and its construction was paid for by the state, despite promises from both President Donald Trump and now-former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that the federal government would reimburse Florida, and an announcement last October from Governor Ron DeSantis that FEMA had approved a grant worth more than $600 million for the facility.
"Until Homeland Security officials decide to fund the facility, no final agency action occurs," wrote Chief Judge William Pryor in Tuesday's opinion, representing two of the three judges.
In August, a federal district judge in Miami issued a preliminary injunction that gave the defendants 60 days to wind down operations at that facility. The state and federal governments appealed, and the higher court temporarily blocked the injunction while it considered whether it should be thrown out entirely. The panel heard oral arguments on the appeal on April 7, two weeks before issuing its opinion, which stated that "the district court abused its discretion when it entered the preliminary injunction."
The third appellate judge, Nancy Abudu, argued in her dissent that her colleagues minimized the federal government's role and responsibility in immigration detention, noting the federal government's requests for help from the State of Florida and promises of funding. Abudu's dissent also voiced concerns over the well-being and constitutional rights of detained immigrants.
"Permitting DHS and ICE to abdicate their responsibility will have dangerous, and sometimes deadly consequences for detainees who are being abused by officers who, with no state authority or federal supervision, engage in rogue behavior," the judge wrote.
The state and federal governments maintain that Alligator Alcatraz is held to ICE detention standards.
“This fight is far from over. Alligator Alcatraz was hastily erected in one of the most fragile ecosystems in the country without the most basic environmental review, at immense human and ecological cost," said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, in a statement to WPTV. "We are pursuing every legal avenue available to right this wrong. Alligator Alcatraz will go down in history as a boondoggle to taxpayers and a flagrant assault on the Everglades, and we look forward to returning to the District Court to advance our case to shut it down."
The appeals court also sent the case back to the district court, where proceedings had been on hold pending the appeal.