LEON COUNTY, Fla. — A judge has ordered the state of Florida to turn over key environmental records related to Alligator Alcatraz to the Stuart-based nonprofit Friends of the Everglades.
The court order comes after Friends of the Everglades sued the Florida Division of Emergency Management in October, claiming the state failed to provide public records needed to assess the environmental impact of the detention facility.
When Alligator Alcatraz opened in July, WPTV asked President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis how a detention facility housing thousands of detainees could impact the federally protected land it sits on.
The lawsuit, filed in Leon County court, claims "despite multiple follow-up communications from Plaintiff [Friends of the Everglades], FDEM failed to promptly produce the requested documents related to applications for federal funding or grants."
On Monday, a judge ordered the state to release the records within 14 days. The nonprofit said the documents will be critical to understand both environmental and taxpayer impact.
"These records are important to us because they indicate the collaboration between the state and federal government, including applying for hundreds of millions of dollars in FEMA funding to pay for the site," Eve Samples said. "And now we have the state raising questions about whether they're going to get federal funding, even though there was a preliminary grant award, and I think state taxpayers aren't happy about being on the hook for it either."
Samples is the executive director of Friends of the Everglades.
Under the court order, the state must hand over the records by Feb. 26.
The Florida Division of Emergency Management has not yet responded to requests for comment.
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