Plaintiffs in a case over the controversial immigrant detention center hastily erected on tribal land in the middle of the Everglades were celebrating Friday a judicial order for the facility to be shut down.
Though considered a win, there is some caution going forward as the case pitting environmental groups as well as the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida against the state is expected to be a protracted legal battle.
The state has already announced its intentions to appeal the judge's ruling to shutter what the state named Alligator Alcatraz.
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"When it comes to our homelands, there is no compromise, and so we will continue to fight," said Curtis Osceola, the senior policy advisor to chairman of the Miccosukee tribe Talbert Cypress. "…This is not the first time the tribe has been in a fight like this. It probably won't be the last, but we are prepared to fight and we are prepared to win."
Alligator Alcatraz — a collection of tents with cages for immigrants -- opened in early July. Late Thursday night federal Judge Kathleen Williams ruled the state must no longer except immigrant detainees and it must begin dismantling the center over the next 60 days.
Alligator Alcatraz is in the heart of Big Cypress National Preserve – the nation's first preserve. It's just six miles from Everglades National Park. And it's on sovereign tribal land surrounded by a dozen or so Miccosukee villages.
The state stunned much of the region and country when it constructed the facility in a matter of days to appease the Trump administration's immigration policies.
And in doing so — the judge ruled — the state failed to abide by a bedrock environmental law before building.
Called the National Environmental Policy Act, NEPA mandates there be environmental studies and public input among other things before the government can erect such things.
"What we saw from the court is not only a victory for the Everglades, it is a victory for the rule of law and for holding government accountable," said Eve Samples, the executive director of the Friends of the Everglades. "It is important to remember that environmental laws in our country stand on equal footing with other laws, and they're being tested in ways that we haven't seen in more than a half century," Samples said.
Sample's group formed some five decades ago after a legal battle on the very land where Alligator Alcatraz stands. After tremendous public outcry, President Nixon scuttled the plan to build what then was being touted as the world's biggest airport. Fast forward some 50 years and President Trump in early July remarked on what he perceived as a sinister and menacing area of the Everglades being a natural deterrent to keep immigrants from escaping Alligator Alcatraz.
Remnants of the unfinished airport — a runway —remained intact for decades serving as little used training center for small planes.
The state has maintained no harm was being be done to the environment because the new detention center — built to hold thousands — was erected on the old runway. The plaintiffs proved otherwise pointing out over 20 acres of open land was paved over and miles of fencing was placed around the facility among other things.
"We are standing up, in this case, for NEPA, " said Tania Galloni, the managing attorney for the Florida regional office of Earthjustice. "… And that statute Congress passed, it decades ago, precisely to avoid a knuckleheaded move like what we've seen with the creation of this detention center in the middle of the Everglades."
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