In a long -awaited follow -up action on August 21 in a legal battle ongoing, a Federal District Court of Miami ruled that the Florida State Government must stop the construction of the so -called “Aligator Alcatraz”, its installation of arrest of migrants built rapidly in the Everglades and eliminating the operational infrastructure within 60 days.
In a preliminary order, Judge Kathleen Williams said that Florida advanced the installation without any obligatory federal environmental approval despite its sensitive location. Florida stated that, as a state installation, the federal environmental review was not applied, but the judge said statements from state officials, which was scheduled to receive up to $ 450 million in US funding for expansion and operation.
“The [state] He consulted without parties or experts and did not evaluate the environmental risks and alternatives, “he said in the decision, Violant the National Environmental Protection Law. Williams emphasized” significant evidence … that the construction of the installation was requested and funded completely by the federal government. “The sentence extended a temporary containment order on August 7.
The Governor of Florida, Ron Desantis, said that the state calls for court action in the Federal Court of Appeal of Atlanta, but it is disputed if and how the detention center will still work. Several days before the ruling, Disantis and other Florida officials confirmed that the state is now building a second detention center in an old prison near Jacksonville, which could open in several weeks. Details of federal funding were not disseminated.
“We will not deter you,” DESANTIS said in the comments in the media.
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Williams ordered the elimination of all generators, gas, wastewater and other waste [infrastructure] Installed to support this project, “as well as lighting and fencing. Its ruling also stops detained transfers at Florida’s installation that Trump administration stated that it would have up to 3,000 at 960 hectares of developed area.
The detention site had been Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in the west of Miami within the Big Cypress Big National Preserva and near Everglades National Park, once planned as an important Jetport, but was stopped in 1970 by restrictions imposed by the Park National Service and the opposition by environmental proponents.
According to the ruling, the runoff and discharge of waste water from the Alcatraz Alligador represent a threat to the water supply of the Miccosukee tribes, whose members live a few kilometers. The plans and photographs reviewed by court also indicated that the operation of the facilities has given rise to about 800,000 square meters of paved soil and the installation of industrial lighting that affected the night sky up to 30 kilometers away. The tribe, as well as the Everglades Friends Defense Groups and the Biological Diversity Center, involved the current legal challenge against the installation.
The court’s decision “sends a clear message that environmental laws must be respected by leaders at the highest levels of our government, and there are consequences for ignoring them.” Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, said in a statement.
“Deporting Depot”?
The announced site of arrest of Northern Florida, which state officials call “Depotion Depot”, would be built at the Baker Correctional Institution about 43 kilometers west in central Jacksonville in Sanderson, FLA. A $ 6 million construction cost was estimated, but they did not confirm the contractor’s selections. Desantis said earlier that the new installation would be located in a Florida National Guard training area outside Jacksonville.
According to local media, officials did not publicly comment on the status of future payments to private contractors hired for the construction work and operations of Aligator Alcatraz. A public database declared a contracted total of $ 245 million or more.
Earlier this month, the North -American National Department announced new efforts with the States, including Indiana and Nebraska, mentioned in the latest ads of the Department, who support Trump’s deportation policy to expand the arrest space that may or may not require a new construction. The funding of up to 80,000 new beds has been included in the Federal Budget Reconciliation Bill promulgated.
The administration aims to double the number of US arrest beds to 107,000, according to a detailed plan obtained by the Washington Post in a report of August 15.
