Judge considers whether Alligator Alcatraz violates environmental law, threatening Everglades' ecosystem
Until the laws are followed, environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe said U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams should issue a preliminary injunction to halt operations and further construction. The suit claims the project threatens environmentally sensitive wetlands that are home to protected plants and animals and would reverse billions of dollars' worth of environmental restoration.
The lawsuit in Miami against federal and state authorities is one of two legal challenges to the South Florida detention center, which was built more than a month ago by the state of Florida on an isolated airstrip owned by Miami-Dade County.
A second lawsuit brought by civil rights groups says detainees' constitutional rights are being violated since they are barred from meeting lawyers, are being held without any charges, and a federal immigration court has canceled bond hearings. A hearing in that case is scheduled for Aug. 18.
Under a 55-year-old federal environmental law, federal agencies should have examined how the detention center's construction would impact the environment, identified ways to minimize the impact and followed other procedural rules such as allowing public comment, according to the environmental groups and the tribe.
It makes no difference that the detention center holding hundreds of detainees was built by the state of Florida, since federal agencies have authority over immigration, the suit said.
"The construction of a detention center is an action that is necessarily subject to federal control and responsibility," they said in a recent court filing. "The State of Florida has no authority or jurisdiction to enforce federal immigration law."
Attorneys for federal and state agencies last week asked Williams to dismiss or transfer the injunction request, saying the lawsuit was filed in the wrong jurisdiction. Even though the property is owned by Miami-Dade County, Florida's southern district is the wrong venue for the lawsuit since the detention center is located in neighboring Collier County, which is in the state's middle district, they said.
Williams had yet to rule on that argument.
The lawsuits were being heard as Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis ′ administration apparently was preparing to build a second immigration detention center at a Florida National Guard training center in north Florida. At least one contract has been awarded for what's labeled in state records as the "North Detention Facility."
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The Hill
6 minutes ago
- The Hill
Hegseth subverts Congress by ordering racist Confederate monument's return to Arlington
The verbal gymnastics by our Defense secretary whenever he orders a Confederate monument to go back up is truly Olympian. To wit, Secretary Pete Hegseth just ordered the army to refurbish a 1914 Arlington Confederate Monument to the tune of $10 million and restore it by 2027. Hegseth called it a 'reconciliation monument … taken down by woke lemmings.' In his announcement, Hegseth avoids the actual name of the monument, 'The Arlington Confederate Monument.' In fact, nothing in his statement mentions the Confederacy at all. There's a reason for that: Congress passed a law in 2019 preventing the Department of Defense from naming or renaming anything after the Confederacy. Hence, 'reconciliation monument.' I study Confederate commemoration. This structure is one the cruelest, most racist monuments in the country, and its location at the sacred ground of Arlington National Cemetery makes it even more offensive. The monument clearly commemorates the Confederacy and its purpose — chattel slavery. It depicts a tearful, overweight enslaved woman, a 'mammy,' cradling the child of her Confederate enslaver, supporting him as he departs for war. The monument portrays faithful slaves and kind white masters, a historical lie. Slavery featured legal rape, torture and selling husband from wife, child from mother. The monument came down because Congress, with a Republican-controlled Senate, passed a law directing the Pentagon 'to remove all names, symbols, displays, monuments, and paraphernalia that honor or commemorate the Confederate States of America.' President Trump vetoed the $800 billion defense bill because it required the changing of nine base names like Fort Lee and Fort Benning that honored Confederates. Those bases were named during World War I and World War II, when the Army and the American South were segregated and few Black southerners could vote. Congress overturned Trump's veto with a supermajority. To execute that order, Congress created a Naming Commission on which I served as vice chair. We were no 'woke lemmings.' The eight commissioners appointed by Congress and the secretary of Defense included three Republicans, one Democrat, and four retired flag officers. When the commission members visited the Confederate monument in 2022, we were shocked by its overt racist imagery and anti U.S. sentiments. We voted unanimously to recommend removal. Hegseth and neo-Confederate groups argue that the Commission sought to 'erase history.' Not quite. Classes still study the Civil War, slavery, the Confederacy, and Jim Crow. Removing the names of bases named after confederate generals or racist monuments changed who and how we commemorate, our remit from Congress, not history. Hegseth further declares that the monument was done in the spirit of reconciliation. He gets his history grossly wrong. Reunion had already occurred in 1868 when President Andrew Johnson magnanimously granted amnesty for treason to all Confederates. By 1877, all the former rebelling states had full political rights and representation. In 1914, the Arlington Monument celebrated not reconciliation, but the victory of white supremacy. Before 1877, over 2,000 Black men held elective office, including a Black U.S. senator from Mississippi. By 1914, even though Mississippi and South Carolina were majority Black, almost no one of color could vote, much less hold office. Jim Crow triumphed. Reconciliation did not include 9 million African Americans in the South who lived in a racial police state without voting rights enforced by a terror campaign of lynching. In 1914, the NAACP's Crisis magazine counted 55 African Americans lynched. In Louisiana, three Black men were burned alive at the stake. Another mob doused a Texas man with gasoline and placed him in an 'oil-soaked, dry-goods box' and set him on fire. None of the perpetrators were ever brought to justice. Commemoration should inspire us. Who we commemorate should reflect our values. Instead of spending $10 million to restore that monument, we should commemorate the 1,800 United States Colored Troops and thousands of other U.S. Army Civil War soldiers buried in Arlington who helped destroy chattel slavery, freed 4 million men, women and children from human bondage, protected democracy and the saved the United States of America. By ordering the monument back, Hegseth is subverting Congress and the will of the American people. He is telling us that the values of 1914, white supremacy, and Jim Crow are this country's — and the Army's — values. This monument has everything to do with racism and nothing to do with reconciliation. Suggesting otherwise is a perversion of U.S. history and an insult to everyone buried in Arlington Cemetery. Brigadier General Ty Seidule, U.S. Army (Retired) served as the Vice Chair of the Naming Commission. His is the Hinchcliff Professor of History at Hamilton College and his forthcoming book with Connor Williams is A Promise Delivered: Ten American Heroes and the Battle to Rename Our Nation's Military Bases.
New York Post
6 minutes ago
- New York Post
Lindsey Graham says Trump's goal is to prevent third invasion of Ukraine, wants Zelensky ‘to be part of the process'
One of President Trump's core objectives heading into negotiations with Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin will be to prevent a third invasion of Ukraine, according to Sen. Lindsey Graham. 'I am here to tell you that President Trump will end this war in a way to prevent a third invasion and not to entice China to take Taiwan,' Graham (R-SC), who went golfing with Trump on Saturday, told NBC's 'Meet the Press.' 'We're not out to humiliate Putin, we're out to get a deal to make sure there's no third invasion.' Graham didn't shed light on how Trump might go about trying to prevent a future invasion of Ukraine, but called for Kyiv to get security guarantees from European countries. Top Russian officials have previously been critical of the idea of Europe providing Ukraine with security. Russia infamously annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and began its current, brutal invasion in February of 2022. 3 Sen. Lindsey Graham conveyed confidence that President Trump is aiming to prevent a third Russian invasion of Ukraine. AP 3 President Trump is set to meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday. REUTERS The South Carolina Republican also suggested that the US should continue working to ensure Ukraine's military remains strong after the war concludes in order to deter future aggression. 'Militarily, we need to keep Ukraine strong, keep flowing them strong and modern weapons, and security guarantees with European forces on the ground as trip wires to prevent a third invasion,' he said. 'We want to end this with the sovereign, independent, self-governing Ukraine, and a situation where Putin cannot do this the third time without being crushed. This is really a dress rehearsal for Taiwan.' Trump is set to meet with Putin in Alaska on Friday. That meeting comes after Putin purportedly made offers to special envoy Steve Witkoff, though details about what the Kremlin tyrant put on the table are murky. Prior to the supposed breakthrough between Witkoff and Putin, Trump had threatened to impose steep secondary sanctions or tariffs against Russia. 3 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has hinted at skepticism over the Trump-Putin summit. The president gave Moscow a deadline of last Friday to either take steps towards peace with Ukraine or else he would pull the trigger on those economic penalties. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has worked to patch things up with Trump since their February Oval Office shouting match, has publicly argued that decisions on how to broker peace cannot be made without Ukraine. Zelensky has also cast doubt on territorial concessions to Russia. 'I do hope that Zelensky can be part of the process. I'll leave that up to the White House,' Graham said of the upcoming talks between Trump and Putin. 'I have every confidence in the world that the President is going to go to meet Putin from a position of strength, that he's going to look out for Europe and Ukrainian needs to end this war honorably.' The White House has reportedly toyed with the idea of having Zelensky attend the meeting with Putin. But Trump has made it clear publicly that he is willing to meet Putin without Zelensky. Graham also floated the division of Berlin as a model to settle the conflict between Russia over time. 'Think about East Berlin and West Berlin as the way a conflict can be settled, at least for a period of time. North Korea and South Korea [are] in a state of truce. There's never been a final settlement,' he said. 'I want to be honest with you. Ukraine's not going to evict every Russian, and Russia's not going to keep [everything]. So there will be some land swaps at the end,' he added. 'The goal for me, and I think President Trump, is to end it [the war] forever.'
Fox News
7 minutes ago
- Fox News
Florida joins nationwide gerrymandering debacle as nationwide feud grows
Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., on the brewing redistricting battle between red and blue states and the new 'Space Race' currently underway.
