ORLANDO, FLORIDA– Federal and state officials withheld evidence suggesting that the Department of Homeland Security agreed to reimburse Florida for some construction costs Immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” according to environmental groups that have filed a lawsuit to close the facility.
The Everglades facility remains open, and is still holding detainees, because an appeals court in early September relied on arguments from Florida and the Trump administration that the state had not yet applied for federal compensation and therefore was not required to follow federal environmental law.
The new evidence — emails and documents obtained through a public records request — shows that officials discussed federal reimbursement in June, and that FEMA confirmed in early August that it had received a request for a grant from state officials. Florida was notified in late September that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had approved $608 million in federal funding to support construction and operation of the center.
“We now know that the federal and state governments have records confirming that they were intimately involved in this facility from the beginning but failed to disclose them to the district court,” said Tanya Galloni, one of the environmental groups’ attorneys.
An appeals panel in Atlanta temporarily stayed a lower court judge’s ruling that would have closed the state-built facility. The Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity said in court papers Wednesday that the new evidence should now be taken into account when judges decide the permanent fate of the facility.
A federal judge in Miami in mid-August I ordered the facility to scale back operations over two months because officials failed to conduct an environmental impact review of the detention center in accordance with federal law. This judge concluded that the payment decision had already been made.
Florida Emergency Management, which led the effort to build the Everglades facility, did not respond to an email inquiry Thursday.
Florida has led other states in building facilities to support President Donald Trump’s campaign against immigration. In addition to the Everglades facility, which It received its first detainees in JulyFlorida has opened an immigration detention center in Northeast Florida and is looking to open a third facility in the Florida Panhandle.
The environmental lawsuit is one of three challenges to the Everglades facility in federal court. In other cases, detainees said Florida agencies and private contractors hired by the state did not have the authority to operate the center under federal law. They are also looking for a provision that guarantees access Secret communications With their lawyers.
___
Follow Mike Schneider on the Bluesky social media platform: @mikeysid.bsky.social