Republican leaders from 22 other states are trying to help Florida convince a federal appeals court to put on hold a judge’s ruling that required winding down operations at an Everglades immigrant-detention center challenged by environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe.
Attorneys general from the other states filed documents Tuesday at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals as Florida seeks a stay of a preliminary injunction issued last week by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams in a battle about the detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”
Williams sided with Friends of the Everglades, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Miccosukee Tribe, which alleged violations of the National Environmental Policy Act, a federal law that requires evaluating potential environmental impacts before projects can move forward.
The Republican attorneys general echoed arguments by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration and President Donald Trump’s administration that the National Environmental Policy Act does not apply to the detention center. They contend that the state — not the federal government — built the detention center and operates it, putting it outside the requirements of the federal law.
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“In halting the construction of a detention facility put up by Florida, and ordering parts of it dismantled, the district court exceeded its authority,” the Republican attorneys general said in a friend-of-the-court brief. “NEPA (the National Environmental Policy Act) imposes obligations on the federal agencies — not states. Enjoining Florida under NEPA disregards that important limitation, effectively making states subject to NEPA.”
The environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe argue that the detention center, which was built this summer and is surrounded by the Big Cypress National Preserve, poses a series of threats to the environment, including to wetlands and wildlife.
The preliminary injunction prevents additional construction and bringing additional detainees to the facility. Williams also ordered the removal within 60 days of temporary fencing, detention-center lighting and such things as generators.
“Plaintiffs have provided extensive evidence supporting their claims of significant ongoing and likely future environmental harms from the project,” Williams’ ruling said. “By contrast, while the defendants repeatedly espouse the importance of immigration enforcement, they offered little to no evidence why this detention camp, in this particular location, is uniquely suited and critical to that mission.”
Williams wrote that there was “no process” to evaluate the risks of the facility.
Florida quickly appealed the preliminary injunction to the Atlanta-based appeals court, and the Trump administration also appealed. Both filed motions Tuesday for stays of the injunction — which, if granted, would put the injunction on hold while the underlying appeals of Williams’ ruling play out.
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While the motions raise a series of issues, Florida and the Trump administration said the National Environmental Policy Act should not apply to the project. The attorneys general from the other states focused their arguments on that issue.
“Florida has chosen to construct a facility on state land,” said the brief, authored by Indiana Attorney General Theodore Rokita’s office. “The district court exceeded its authority in enjoining state actions and decisions not subject to NEPA. This is especially so in light of the fact that the court’s ‘preliminary’ injunction does not preserve the status quo but grants what amounts to final relief — it orders Florida to remove fencing, lights, and generators already installed at the facility and for the federal government to stop using the facility.”
The other states are Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia and Wyoming. While the friend-of-the-court brief was submitted Tuesday, the states still needed the appeals court Wednesday to agree to accept its filing.
Florida Republican leaders have said the facility, which opened last month at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in the Everglades, would help Trump carry out deportation efforts of people in the country illegally.
Florida officials initially said the facility would house up to 3,000 detainees and could be expanded to add 1,000 people. But state Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie, who has helped spearhead the project, said Aug. 14 the center had a capacity for 2,000 detainees and held 1,000.
In a filing Wednesday at the appeals court, however, attorneys for the environmental groups and the tribe raised the possibility that the number of detainees at the facility could be significantly smaller. The filing said that “although the facility at one point had held up to 1,200 individuals, by August 20 — before the district court entered the preliminary injunction — defendants had voluntarily reduced that number to 336, suggesting lack of demand or available alternatives.”
