Environmental Concerns Could Halt Construction at Florida's ‘Alligator Alcatraz' Immigration Jail
Last week, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams ordered a 14-day halt on additional construction at the site while witnesses testified at a hearing, part of a lawsuit seeking to halt operations and further construction. The temporary order doesn't include any restrictions on law enforcement or immigration enforcement activity.
The judge concluded a multi-day hearing on Wednesday without making an immediate decision on whether to issue a preliminary injunction.
President Donald Trump toured the facility last month and suggested it could be a model for future lockups nationwide as his administration races to expand the infrastructure necessary for increasing deportations.
Environmental groups and a Native American tribe have sued over the facility, saying it was hastily set up without the environmental impact considerations needed for all federal projects, even though it deals with immigration, a federal matter.
'It just flies in the face of what NEPA requires,' said Paul Schwiep, an attorney for the environmental groups, referring to the National Environmental Policy Act.
Florida and the Trump administration argue that the state is building and operating the detention center, so those rules about an environmental review don't apply. Adam Gustafson, an attorney for the federal government, said during the hearing's closing arguments Wednesday that the federal government only plays an advisory role at the facility.
The judge last week said the center was, at a minimum, a joint partnership between the state and federal government.
The first phase of 'Alligator Alcatraz' opened in July atop a lightly used, single-runway training airport. Less than 1,000 detainees were being held there as of last week, and it's designed to eventually hold up to 3,000 people.
Inside the compound's large white tents, rows of bunkbeds are surrounded by chain-link cages. People held there say worms turn up in the food, toilets don't flush and flood floors with fecal waste, while mosquitoes and other insects are everywhere. At times the air conditioners abruptly shut off in the sweltering heat. Detainees are said to go days without showering or getting prescription medicine, and can only speak to lawyers and loved ones by phone.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has 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. The detention center has an estimated annual cost of $450 million, according to a public database.
When asked by the judge why a detention facility needed to be located in the middle of the Everglades, Jesse Panuccio, an attorney representing the state of Florida, referred to government officials' statements that the remote location and existing runway made it ideal for immigration detention. Williams pointed out many other detention centers were operated safely and effectively in urban areas.
'Florida is lousy with airports,' the judge said. 'Why in the middle of the Everglades?'
Witnesses for the environmental groups have testified that at least 20 acres (8 hectares) of asphalt have been added to the site since the Florida Division of Emergency Management began construction. They said additional paving could lead to an increase in water runoff to the adjacent wetlands, spread harmful chemicals into the Everglades and reduce the habitat for endangered Florida panthers.
Chris Ajizian, an attorney for the Miccosukee Tribe, said that neither the state nor federal government gave the tribe any notice of their plans for a detention facility, despite legal obligations and the tribe's incontrovertible connection to the Everglades.
'It is the life blood of their community, their history and their identity,' Ajizian said during the hearing's closing.
The lawsuit was being heard as DeSantis′ administration was apparently preparing to build a second immigration detention center at a Florida National Guard training center in the state's north.
A second lawsuit claims detainees' constitutional rights are being violated because they are barred from meeting lawyers, are being held without any charges, and a federal immigration court has canceled bond hearings. Over the weekend, a federal judge gave the state until late September to prepare arguments against an effort to get the civil rights litigation certified as a class action.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Nikkei Asia
44 minutes ago
- Nikkei Asia
Zelenskyy to travel to Washington on Monday for talks with Trump
After an Oval Office confrontation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Feb. 28, U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly suspended all American military aid to Ukraine, casting a shadow over U.S. defense priorities around the world. © Reuters August 16, 2025 17:58 JST KYIV (Reuters) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would travel to Washington on Monday for talks with Donald Trump, after the U.S. president's summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin failed to bring an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.
The Mainichi
an hour ago
- The Mainichi
Mexico, Guatemala, Belize to create tri-national nature reserve to protect Mayan jungle
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) -- The leaders of Mexico, Guatemala and Belize announced on Friday that they were creating a tri-national nature reserve to protect the Mayan rain forest following a meeting during which they also discussed expanding a Mexican train line criticized for slicing through jungle habitat. The nature reserve would stretch across jungled areas of southern Mexico and northern parts of the two Central American nations, encompassing more than 14 million acres (5.7 million hectares). Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum called the move "historic" and said it would create the second biggest nature reserve in Latin America, behind the Amazon rain forest. "This is one of Earth's lungs, a living space for thousands of species with an invaluable cultural legacy that we should preserve with our eyes on the future," Sheinbaum said, standing side-by-side with Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo and Belize Prime Minister Johnny Briceno. The announcement was met with cautious celebration by environmental groups like Mexico-based Selvame, who have sharply criticized the Mexican government and Sheinbaum's allies in recent years for environmental destruction wrought by megaprojects like a controversial train line, known as the Maya Train. The group said in statement that the reserve was a "monumental step for conservation" but that it hoped that the reserve was more than just "symbolic." "We're in a race against the clock. Real estate and construction companies are invading the jungle, polluting our ecosystems, and endangering both the water we consume, and the communities that depend on it," the group wrote. It called on Sheinbaum's government to put an effective monitoring system in place to "stop any destructive activities." At the same time, the leaders also discussed a proposal by Mexico to expand the very train line those environmental groups have long fought from southern Mexico to Guatemala and Belize. The thousand-mile train currently runs in a rough loop around Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, and was created with the purpose of connecting Mexico's popular Caribbean resorts with remote jungle and Mayan archaeological sites in rural areas. However, it has fueled controversy and legal battles as it sliced through swathes of jungle and damaged a delicate cave system in Mexico that serves as the area's main source of water. In a span of four years, authorities cut down approximately 7 million trees, according to government figures. Sheinbaum's mentor and predecessor former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador fast-tracked the train project without detailed environmental studies. The populist repeatedly ignored orders from judges to stop construction due to environmental concerns and publicly attacked environmentalists warning about damage done to fragile ecosystems. Lopez Obrador first proposed the idea of expanding the train to Guatemala, and Sheinbaum has continued to push for the project. On Friday, she said the extension would usher in development in rural areas with few economic opportunities. But Arevalo was already on record saying Guatemala's laws would not allow it to be built through protected jungle in the north of the country. The Guatemalan leader said on Friday he sees the economic potential of the project to the jungle region but remained adamant that the construction should not come with the kind of environmental damage that it inflicted in Mexico. "Connecting the Maya Train with Guatemala and eventually with Belize is a vision we share," Arevalo said. But "I've made it very clear at all times that the Maya Train will not pass through any protected area." He said there would also have to be careful environmental studies and the two presidents looked at an alternative proposal that would have the train loop instead of directly cut through the jungles of Guatemala and Belize. It remained unclear how the train's potential route would be affected by the new protected area.
The Mainichi
an hour ago
- The Mainichi
Bolivian voters hungry for change, disillusioned by options ahead of election
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) -- The campaign billboards adorning the streets of Bolivia for Sunday's presidential election make grand promises: A solution to the dire economic crisis within 100 days, an end to fuel shortages and bread lines, unity for a divided nation. One vice presidential candidate pledges to "Make Bolivia Sexy Again." In their efforts to draw votes, all eight candidates -- two right-wing front-runners, a conservative centrist and splintered factions of Bolivia's long-dominant left-wing -- are vowing drastic change, launching searing attacks on the status quo and selling a message of hope. But for many Bolivians, hope has already hardened into cynicism. Slogans fail to break through Promises of quick fixes -- like right-wing candidate Samuel Doria Medina's pledge to stabilize the upside-down economy within "100 days, dammit!" -- fall flat. Vandals add extra zeroes to his campaign posters, suggesting a million days might be a more realistic goal. Tuto, the nickname of Jorge Quiroga, the other right-wing favorite, turns up on city walls with its first letter swapped to form a Spanish insult. Some signs for left-wing candidate Andronico Rodriguez, pledging "unity above all" have been defaced to read "unity in the face of lines." And few know what to do with the acronym of the governing party candidate, Eduardo del Castillo: "We Are a National Option with Authentic Ideas." (No, It's not any catchier in Spanish). Yet for all their disenchantment with politicians, Bolivians are counting down the days until elections, united in their relief that, no matter what happens, leftist President Luis Arce will leave office after five difficult years. Inflation is soaring. The central bank has burned through its dollar reserves. Imported goods have vanished from shelves. "I have no faith in any candidate. There's no one new in this race," Alex Poma Quispe, 25, told The Associated Press from his family's fruit truck, where he slept curled into a ball in the front seat Wednesday for a second straight night, stranded with 50 other trucks in a fuel line en route from farms in the Yungas region to markets in Bolivia's capital of La Paz. "The only thing we're enthusiastic about is Arce leaving." New campaigns, old faces A bitter power struggle between Arce and former President Evo Morales has shattered their hegemonic Movement Toward Socialism, or MAS, party, giving the right-wing opposition its best shot at victory in two decades. "I've seen that socialism has brought nothing good to this country," said Victor Ticona, 24, a music student, as he left Quiroga's campaign rally Wednesday. "We have to become more competitive in the world." Doria Medina, a 66-year-old multimillionaire businessman, and Quiroga, a 65-year-old former vice president who briefly assumed the presidency in 2001 after then-President Hugo Banzer resigned with cancer, are familiar faces in Bolivian politics. Both have run for president three times before. While their calls for economic freedom and foreign investment appeal to voters desperate for change, they have struggled to stir up excitement. Nearly 30% of voters are undecided, according to polls. Doria Medina, a former minister of planning, acknowledged in a recent social media video that "people say I have no charisma, that I'm too serious." Quiroga's relationship with Banzer, a former military dictator who brutally quashed dissent over seven corruption-plagued years before being democratically elected, has turned some voters off. "It was a bloody era," recalled 52-year-old taxi driver Juan Carlos Mamani. "For me, Tuto is the definition of the old guard." Quiroga also served in the government of right-wing caretaker President Jeanine Anez after Morales' 2019 ouster, an administration widely criticized for its persecution of political opponents and violent crackdown on protests. At the pumps, not the polls Poma Quispe and his 24-year-old brother Weimar have no idea who'd they vote for -- or if they'll vote at all. Voting is compulsory in Bolivia, and about 7.9 million people in the country of 12 million are eligible to cast ballots in Sunday's election. Non-voters face various financial penalties. Over the past year, fuel shortages have brought much of Bolivia to a standstill. Truckers waste days at a time queuing at empty gas stations around Bolivia, just to keep their vehicles moving. The diesel arrives on no set schedule, and the rhythm of life is forced to adapt. If the diesel arrives before Sunday, the Poma Quispe brothers will vote. If not, "there's no way we're giving up our spot in line for those candidates," Weimar Poma Quispe said. Personal drama over political debate This year's election coincides with the 200th anniversary of Bolivia's independence. But instead of celebrating, many Bolivians are questioning the validity of their democracy and state-directed economic model. Crowds booed at President Arce during his bicentennial speech earlier this month. His government invited left-wing presidents from across Latin America to attend the event; only the president of Honduras showed. The lack of enthusiasm among ordinary Bolivians and beleaguered officials seems matched by that of the candidates. Authorities allowed televised presidential debates -- banned under Morales -- for the first time in 20 years. The front-runners turned up to just one of them. Personal attacks overshadowed policy discussions. Doria Medina accused Del Castillo of ties to drug traffickers, while Del Castillo mocked the businessman's record of failed presidential bids. Rodriguez and Quiroga traded barbs over alleged involvement in extrajudicial killings. Chasing the youth vote The median age in Bolivia is 26. For comparison, it is 39 in China and the United States. Having grown up under the government of Morales and his MAS party, many young Bolivians are restive, disillusioned by current prospects as they become more digitally connected than any generation before them. Quiroga in particular has energized young voters with his running mate, JP Velasco, a successful 38-year-old tech entrepreneur with no political experience who vows to reverse a brain drain in Bolivia and create opportunities for youth in exploiting the country's abundant reserves of lithium, the critical metal for electric vehicle batteries, and developing data centers. Young crowds packed Quiroga's Wednesday night campaign rally, even as 20-somethings in goth makeup and tight-stretch dresses expressed more interest in the lively cumbia bands than the political speeches. Others sported red MAGA-style caps with Velasco's slogan, "Make Bolivia Sexy Again." Cap-wearers offered varying answers on when Bolivia was last "sexy," with some saying never, but agreed it meant attractive to foreign investors. "It won't just be tech companies coming here, McDonald's might even come," Velasco told the crowd, eliciting whoops and howls. "Young people, if you go abroad, let it be for vacation."
