ORLANDO, Fla. — (AP) — A federal appeals court panel on Thursday put on hold a lower court judge's order to end operations indefinitely at the immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz."
The three-judge panel in Atlanta decided by a 2-1 vote to stay the federal judge’s order pending the outcome of an appeal, saying it was in the public interest. The ruling will allow the facility to continue holding detainees for the time being.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams in Miami issued a preliminary injunction last month ordering operations at the facility to be wound down by the end of October, with detainees transferred to other facilities and equipment and fencing removed.
Williams' decision was issued in response to a lawsuit brought by Friends of the Everglades, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Miccosukee Tribe, who accused the state and federal defendants of not following federal law requiring an environmental review for the detention center in the middle of sensitive wetlands.
“This is a heartbreaking blow to America’s Everglades and every living creature there, but the case isn’t even close to over,” Elise Bennett, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said Thursday.
Republican Gov. Ron 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 in the U.S. illegally. The governor said the location in the rugged and remote Everglades was meant as a deterrent against escape, much like the island prison in California that Republicans named it after.
Trump toured the facility in July and suggested it could be a model for future lockups nationwide as his administration pushes to expand the infrastructure needed to increase deportations.
DeSantis said on social media Thursday, after the appellate panel issued its ruling, that claims that the facility's shutdown were imminent were false.
“We said we would fight that. We said the mission would continue,” DeSantis said. “So Alligator Alcatraz is in fact, like we've always said, open for business.”
The Department of Homeland Security called Thursday's ruling “a win for the American people, the rule of law and common sense.”
“This lawsuit was never about the environmental impacts of turning a developed airport into a detention facility,” DHS said in a statement. "It has and will always be about open-borders activists and judges trying to keep law enforcement from removing dangerous criminal aliens from our communities, full stop.”
The state and federal government defendants appealed Williams' ruling, asking that it be put on hold. The state of Florida said in court papers this week that it planned to resume accepting detainees at the facility if the stay was granted.
The federal government claims that it isn’t responsible for the detention center since it hasn’t spent a cent to build or operate the facility, even though Florida is seeking some federal grant money to fund a portion of it. Florida claims that the environmental impact statement required by federal law doesn’t apply to states.
In Thursday's ruling, the majority on the appellate panel largely accepted those arguments, saying Williams erred by assuming statements federal officials had made about reimbursing the state weren't the same as a final decision about funding the facility.
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