Miami – A federal judge in Miami ruled on Thursday that “Aligator Alcatraz”, the migrant detention center challenged in the Florida Everglades, can remain operational for now, but that cannot be expanded and no additional detainees cannot be brought.
American District Judge Kathleen M. Williams entered a preliminary court order to avoid the installation of any additional industrial style lighting and any site expansion. His ruling also avoids “bringing additional people … who were not yet being arrested on the site at the time of this order.”
The ruling was presented on Thursday night, allowing the court order that was requested on the violations of the National Environmental Policy Law.
In 60 days, the installation must also eliminate “all generators, gas, wastewater and other waste and waste receptacles that were installed to support this project,” said the 82 -page failure.
You must also eliminate additional lighting that was installed for the detention center. Light pollution was a hot topic during the audiences earlier this month.
It is not clear how the installation will remain operational if these resources are eliminated.
The government must also eliminate the temporary fencing installed to allow members of the American native tribe to have access to the consistent site with the access before the installation was erected.
Neither the Department of Justice nor the National Security Department immediately responded to the requests for comments. The offices of the Governor of Florida Ron Desantis and the Florida Emergency Management Division did not immediately respond to the requests for comments.
The defense has appealed the ruling, as shown in the judicial records.
Williams’s decision dropped the same day that a temporary freezing of the construction that he issued previously expired and after a four -day hearing about environmental concerns about the location of the installation in the sensitive wetlands.
Williams had issued a temporary restriction order this month to temporarily stop operations for a demand claiming that the construction of the detention center falsified the environmental laws. That decision meant that the filling, pavement or installation of additional infrastructure was not allowed, but did not affect the activity of application of the center immigration.
The environmental groups demanded in June to stop the installation, which he opened in July on an airstrip in the Big Cypress National Preserve of Ochopee.
The lawsuit said the center was built without ecological reviews required under the National Environmental Policy Law and without notice or public comments and that the Government did not comply with other state and federal statutes, including the law of endangered species.
The Trump administration minimized environmental concerns and argued that the installation was necessary because voters want the federal government to slow illegal immigration.
Paul Schweip, a lawyer who represents the plaintiff, said in the Court on August 13 that “the suggestion that there is no environmental impact is absurd.”
“So why here? There are clues elsewhere … Why the Jetport in this area?” Schweip asked. “Aligator Alcatraz. A name intended to sound sinister. I would rise, judge, this is just a public relations trick.”
The environmental groups and the Native Americans had protested the construction of the site, which is part of the repression of the Trump administration on immigration, due to the delicate and unique ecosystem of the Everglades, which houses endangered species and threatened.
On August 12, the Court listened to Amy Castaneda, director of Water Resources for the Marcosukee tribe of the Indians of Florida. Castaneda said that he has worked with the tribe for 19 years and that the entrance to the Jetport where the installation is built is a quarter of mile of the land of the tribe.
When asked what the Everglades land for the Miccosukee tribe, she replied: “It is written in the Constitution to protect the Everglades because the Everglades protected them when they were hunted by the government.”
Castaneda said that for almost two decades, there has been “minimal” activity in the Jetport, but that changed after June with the construction of the detention center.
“There is much more activity there, the vehicles entering and leaving, the cars generally isolated on the southern side of Tamiami Trail taking photos with the sign. The tankers, the protesters, the media, the people who establish tents to sell merches for Aligator Alcatraz. Only different levels,” he said.
Castaneda said that no one from the federal government, the State or any other government entity contacted the tribe on construction.
She said that water resources officials for the tribe have collected downstream samples of the installation to prove and determine if there has been a change of nutrients or possible health concerns.
Marcel Bozas, director of fish and wildlife of the Miccosukee tribe of the Florida Indians, also testified on August 12, noting that the landing floor is a couple of miles from the tribe sites.
While tribal members cannot access the landing floor, some paths are no longer accessible. When asked about the impact of hunting on the earth, Boxas said: “Tribal members are concerned about wildlife who could be hunting before are they no longer in that area.” There is also concern that medicinal plants are affected.
