A Federal Appeal Court in Atlanta has blocked the order of a Miami District Court Judge, who demanded Florida to close and dismantle what was ruled as a state immigrant arrest center built by the Everglades, deciding on September 4 that the plaintiffs could not say that it was a federal place that violated a national environmental protection law. A panel of three judges granted, 2-1, a preliminary order that allows the installation to operate, expand and receive more detainees while a larger legal challenge continues.
The judges supported Florida’s applications and the US National Security Department to maintain the August Order of Judge Kathleen Williams, which had required stoppage within 60 days after “Alligator Alcatraz”, the installation built in an old state site west of Miami.
According to Williams’s 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. He said that the plans and photographs reviewed by court showed that the operation of the facilities has resulted in the fact that about 800,000 square meters of paved land, the tribe, as well as the Friends of Everglades Defense groups and the Center for Biological Diversity, led to the current legal challenge against the installation.
But the Appeal Court said that Florida is likely to show that the plaintiffs have not been able to declare a viable claim of their federal link.
Quoting the modifications to the Law of National Environmental Policy by 2023, the court said that the detention center is operated by the State, not the federal government. He said that Williams was mistaken in allowing the claimants to say that Aligator Alcatraz was built with federal dollars, despite the previous statements of Governor Ron Desantis and other Florida and Federal officials that the Trump administration would reimburse the state for its development costs, estimated at $ 450 million for construction and operation.
The opinion said that if the federal government refunds florida, or any other state that builds this installation, this state should perform an environmental impact review.
“The district court concluded that the construction of the facility was completely funded by the federal government,” said the majority opinion written by Judge Barbara Lagoa. “ When he arrived at this conclusion, the district court was largely based on public declarations “ by the Secretary of Disantis and the National Secretary of National Security Kristi Noem, as well as a North -American Department of Justice, who presented himself in another case, “ representing ” Federal Federal Federal “as far as the District Court made these statements to mean that Florida can be reimbursed for its extension …
The opinion of appeal added that NEPA was a procedural status and called into question if something other than federal dollars could define this project as a federal and require a statement of environmental impact and other law provisions. “It simply requires an agency to prepare a [EIS]”In essence, a report,” said the majority opinion.
Desantis reacted to a judgment in a video statement of social media, saying that the district court judge “ruled unplateibly that, in some ways, Florida did not allow us to use our own property to help the federal government” because officials did not evaluate the environmental impacts of alligator’s development. “
Environmental groups and Miccosukkee tribe could apply for an audience before the Complete Appeal Court and have already pledged to appeal the stay.
“We are hopeful [lower court] The preliminary system will be signed when reviewing his merits during the call, “said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, in a statement.
The ruling of the lower courts banned the federal Agencies of Florida and the federal agencies installing more lighting or completing any paving, filling, excavation or other type of expansion of the site, while identifying a company rental company as a prohibited contractor of the work of the site. They are now eliminated and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said that the construction would begin soon and that more detainees would move to the facility.
Desantis said that Florida also plans two more state detention centers for detainees in the United States illegally and accused of immigration rape such as crossing a North -American border illegally or overcoming a visa, with Indiana and Louisiana announcing facilities similar to opening.
