A federal official confirmed Thursday that Florida received FEMA reimbursement for the Everglades detention center. The funds -- $608 million, all the funds the state requested – were received Tuesday, the day before the government shutdown.
Elise Bennett, Florida director and a lawyer for the Center for Biological Diversity, said the information confirms the group's contentions and backs up a lawsuit they filed.
Because FEMA funds are being used at the Everglades detention center — named the Alligator Alcatraz by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier — the facility is legally required to undergo federal environmental review to protect endangered wildlife.
"This really does appear to be evidence of what we've been saying the entire time, that this is a federal project that's going to be funded by federal money," Bennett told WGCU. "And it shows that we're right, that environmental review under federal environmental laws should have occurred before the detention facility in the Everglades was built."
The $608 million Alcatraz reimbursement figure amount was confirmed to WGCU by a FEMA spokesperson.
"The state and federal government continue to dodge their responsibility for complying with environmental laws, and the Everglades are paying the price," said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades. "The award of FEMA funds is more clear evidence that activity at Alligator Alcatraz must be halted to comply with bedrock environmental protections."
The Everglades facility was challenged in a June 27 lawsuit filed by Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, represented by Scott Hiaasen, Paul Schwiep, Earthjustice and Center attorneys, and joined by the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida. During lawsuit hearings it was alleged that FEMA funding was promised for the project before it began.
"I think it seems to be the smoking gun proving that our lawsuit challenging the detention facility in the Everglades was correct. We knew that the state had submitted an application for these department of homeland security funds," Bennett said.
The Center for Biological Diversity has an ongoing Freedom of Information Act request filed to obtain records on the FEMA funding.
"It shows that the the Trump administration, the DeSantis administration, they can't keep playing this trade anymore," she added. "They can't keep pretending that this is anything other than a federal action that required a careful public look at what the consequences would be."
A federal district court judge on Aug. 21 ruled in favor of the groups and ordered that the facility wind down operations as the lawsuit proceeded. That order was paused on Sept. 4 by a federal appeals court, which based its ruling in part on a lack of information showing the state had received the federal funds, which would require federal environmental reviews.
The funds came from $150 billion Congress funneled to the Federal Emergency Management Agency this year to assist with President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration. Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration sought federal money to cover the costs of Alligator Alcatraz, which is in the Everglades. The state opened another immigrant-detention center in Baker County last month.
The Florida Division of Emergency Management spent about $218 million to erect the Everglades facility, which had a capacity for 2,000 people and could be expanded, according to court records.
The Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Everglades and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida contend in the lawsuit that the facility, which is surrounded by Big Cypress National Preserve, threatens the environment and wildlife in the area. But state and federal officials say the facility is adjacent to a decades-old airstrip known as the Collier-Dade Training and Transition Center. Speaking to reporters last week, DeSantis said federal officials "could do a very quick impact statement" to show that the site was not having a negative effect on the environment, but that a study was not necessary.
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