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News.com.au
5 days ago
- Politics
- News.com.au
US judge orders temporary halt to new 'Alligator Alcatraz' construction
A US federal judge ordered a temporary pause on Thursday to further construction of the migrant detention center in the Florida Everglades known as "Alligator Alcatraz" in a case filed by conservation groups. District Judge Kathleen Williams issued the temporary restraining order in a lawsuit filed against the Trump administration by Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity. The detention center, built on the site of an abandoned airfield in the Big Cypress National Preserve, can continue to house immigration detainees, but the Miami-based judge ordered an immediate two-week halt to new construction while the suit proceeds. Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity are arguing that the detention center threatens the sensitive Everglades ecosystem and was hastily built without conducting the required environmental impact studies. President Donald Trump, who has vowed to deport millions of undocumented migrants, visited the center last month, boasting about the harsh conditions and joking that the reptilian predators will serve as guards. The name "Alligator Alcatraz" is a reference to Alcatraz Island, the former prison on an island in San Franciso Bay that Trump recently said he wanted to reopen. The conservation groups that filed the lawsuit welcomed the judge's ruling. "We're pleased that the judge saw the urgent need to put a pause on additional construction, and we look forward to advancing our ultimate goal of protecting the unique and imperiled Everglades ecosystem from further damage caused by this mass detention facility," Eve Samples, executive director at Friends of the Everglades, said in a statement. Elise Bennett, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said it was a "relief that the court has stepped in to protect the Everglades' sensitive waters, starry skies and vulnerable creatures from further harm while we continue our case." "We're ready to press forward and put a stop to this despicable plan for good," Bennett said. The ruling was also welcomed by the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, which joined the case. "The detention facility threatens land that is not only environmentally sensitive but sacred to our people," tribal chairman Talbert Cypress said. "While this order is temporary, it is an important step in asserting our rights and protecting our homeland." The detention center is also the subject of a lawsuit filed in another federal court claiming that detainees are not being given access to attorneys and are being held without charges.
France 24
5 days ago
- Politics
- France 24
US judge orders temporary halt to new 'Alligator Alcatraz' construction
District Judge Kathleen Williams issued the temporary restraining order in a lawsuit filed against the Trump administration by Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity. The detention center, built on the site of an abandoned airfield in the Big Cypress National Preserve, can continue to house immigration detainees, but the Miami-based judge ordered an immediate two-week halt to new construction while the suit proceeds. Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity are arguing that the detention center threatens the sensitive Everglades ecosystem and was hastily built without conducting the required environmental impact studies. President Donald Trump, who has vowed to deport millions of undocumented migrants, visited the center last month, boasting about the harsh conditions and joking that the reptilian predators will serve as guards. The name "Alligator Alcatraz" is a reference to Alcatraz Island, the former prison on an island in San Franciso Bay that Trump recently said he wanted to reopen. The conservation groups that filed the lawsuit welcomed the judge's ruling. "We're pleased that the judge saw the urgent need to put a pause on additional construction, and we look forward to advancing our ultimate goal of protecting the unique and imperiled Everglades ecosystem from further damage caused by this mass detention facility," Eve Samples, executive director at Friends of the Everglades, said in a statement. Elise Bennett, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said it was a "relief that the court has stepped in to protect the Everglades' sensitive waters, starry skies and vulnerable creatures from further harm while we continue our case." "We're ready to press forward and put a stop to this despicable plan for good," Bennett said. The ruling was also welcomed by the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, which joined the case. "The detention facility threatens land that is not only environmentally sensitive but sacred to our people," tribal chairman Talbert Cypress said. "While this order is temporary, it is an important step in asserting our rights and protecting our homeland." The detention center is also the subject of a lawsuit filed in another federal court claiming that detainees are not being given access to attorneys and are being held without charges.
E&E News
04-08-2025
- Politics
- E&E News
‘Alligator Alcatraz' faces NEPA challenge over Everglades impacts
A federal judge will dust for Trump administration fingerprints this week on Florida's 'Alligator Alcatraz' detention center that critics say has spoiled a remote stretch of the Everglades. What's found at a court hearing Wednesday will shape the future of the facility abruptly plunked in the middle of Big Cypress National Preserve to bolster the administration's mass deportation campaign. The Center for Biological Diversity and the Friends of the Everglades contend that the site anticipated to eventually house upward of 5,000 detainees falls under the National Environmental Policy Act and so requires a full-bore environmental study. Advertisement 'We've had to piece together the impacts, because the state of Florida has not done any environmental impact analysis,' Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, said in an interview.
CBS News
31-07-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Federal judge allows Miccosukee Tribe to join environmental lawsuit against Alligator Alcatraz
A federal judge on Wednesday allowed the Miccosukee Tribe to join a lawsuit filed by environmental groups challenging an immigrant-detention center in the Everglades, dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz." The lawsuit, filed by Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, alleges that state and federal officials did not comply with a law requiring that an environmental-impact study be performed before developing the remote facility. The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida on July 14 filed a motion seeking to intervene in the lawsuit over the detention center, which is surrounded by the Big Cypress National Preserve. The tribe's intervention request said the "Miccosukee people have lived in and cared for the land now known as the Big Cypress National Preserve since time immemorial" and raised environmental concerns. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams issued an order allowing the tribe to join the lawsuit after holding a hearing on the issue Wednesday. "We welcome the valuable perspective of the Miccosukee Tribe, which is on the front lines of the damage this mass detention center poses to the Everglades," Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, said in a statement. Attorneys for state Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie, who is a defendant in the lawsuit, filed a motion Friday opposing the Miccosukees' effort. In part, the state's lawyers argued that the tribe's participation would be "duplicative" of arguments by the environmental groups and would "inject into the case additional briefing and discovery that would seriously burden the existing parties and the court." Federal officials on Friday said they did not take a position on the tribe's intervention. The Miccosukee's motion said the detention center's "proximity to the tribe's villages, sacred and ceremonial sites, traditional hunting grounds, and other lands protected by the tribe raises significant concerns about environmental degradation and potential impacts to the same caused by the construction and operation of a detention facility" at the site. Williams is slated to hold an Aug. 6 hearing to consider the plaintiffs' request for a preliminary injunction requiring an impact study to be performed.
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Miccosukee Tribe of Florida wants to join a federal lawsuit against 'Alligator Alcatraz'
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida is seeking to join a federal lawsuit aimed at halting the construction and operation of a new immigration detention facility in the Everglades, which tribal members consider their sacred ancestral homelands. Miccosukee leaders had already condemned the makeshift compound of trailers and tents that rose out of the swamp in a matter of days. But the filing Monday of a motion to intervene in the case initially brought by environmental groups signals a new level of opposition by the tribe, which is also a major political donor in the state. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration rapidly built the facility, which state officials have dubbed 'Alligator Alcatraz," on an isolated, county-owned airstrip inside the Big Cypress National Preserve, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of downtown Miami. The Miccosukee have lived on and cared for the lands of Big Cypress 'since time immemorial,' the filing reads, noting that the tribe played an integral role in pushing for the creation of the national preserve, the country's first. 'The area now known as the Preserve is a core piece of the Tribe's homeland. Today, all of the Tribe's active ceremonial sites and a significant majority of the Tribe's traditional villages (sometimes known as 'clan camps') are within the Preserve,' the filing reads. To DeSantis and other state officials, locating the facility in the rugged and remote Everglades is meant as a deterrent, a national model for how to get immigrants to 'self-deport.' The Republican Party of Florida has taken to fundraising off the detention center, selling branded T-shirts and beer koozies emblazoned with the facility's name. Officials have touted the harshness of the area, saying there's 'not much" there other than the wildlife who call it home. In fact, the Miccosukee have lived on those lands for centuries, the tribe's attorneys wrote in their motion, which notes that there are 10 tribal villages within a three-mile (4.8-kilometer) radius of the detention center, one of which is approximately 1,000 feet (304 meters) from the facility. The preserve is a place where tribal members continue to hunt, trap and fish, as well as catch the school bus, hold sacred rituals and bury their loved ones. "The facility's proximity to the Tribe's villages, sacred and ceremonial sites, traditional hunting grounds, and other lands protected by the Tribe raises significant concerns about environmental degradation and potential impacts," the filing reads. The lawsuit originally filed by the Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity seeks to halt the project until it undergoes a stringent environmental review as required by federal and state law. There is also supposed to be a chance for public comment, the plaintiffs argue. As of Tuesday afternoon, the judge in the case had not acted on the groups' requests for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to stop activity at the site. The state raced to build the facility at the isolated airfield before the first detainees arrived on July 3. Streams of trucks carrying supplies like portable toilets, asphalt and construction materials drove into the facility's gates around the clock as workers assembled a network of massive tents that officials said could ultimately house 5,000 detainees. What had been an internationally designated 'dark sky' park far away from urban development is now blasted by lights so powerful, the glow can be see from 15 miles (24.1 kilometers) away, the environmental groups said. The area's hunting and fishing stocks could be so significantly impacted, attorneys argue the tribe's traditional rights — guaranteed by federal and state law — could be 'rendered meaningless.' ___ Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Solve the daily Crossword
