ORLANDO, FLORIDA– ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A federal lawsuit has temporarily halted operations at an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades dubbed… “Crocodile Alcatraz” On Wednesday, the Court of Appeal stopped the… Government shutdown.
Earlier this month, US government lawyers asked the US 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to halt proceedings in the case because funding for the Department of Justice, as well as the defendant Department of Homeland Security, had ended due to the government shutdown.
They asked for a pause until Congress restored the appropriations.
On Wednesday, the Court of Appeal granted the request. While the facility was built and operated by the state of Florida and its private contractors, federal officials have agreed to compensate the state For $608 million.
President Donald Trump’s administration has sued hundreds of cases across the country during the shutdown, lawyers for environmental groups that have sued the federal and state governments over environmental concerns about the facility said.
“The government clearly had enough money and manpower to operate a detention center in the heart of the Everglades to hold foreign-born workers, but not enough to file a brief with the court to justify its conduct, which the court found unlawful,” said Paul Schoep, one of the attorneys.
The Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, along with the Miccosukee Tribe, filed a lawsuit against federal and state agencies this summer, alleging they did not follow federal law requiring an environmental review of the detention center in Central. Sensitive wetlands.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams agreed and in August ordered the facility to be built needed to calm down Operations within two months. However, that injunction was put on hold in early September when an appeals court panel in Atlanta decided He issued a residence permitawaiting the outcome of the appeal, allowing the facility to remain open for the time being.
The federal government’s opening appeal brief was scheduled to be filed on Friday.
Two other cases challenging operations at the Everglades Detention Center are pending in federal court in Florida.
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