An Obama-appointed federal judge isn’t interested in extending an olive branch to Florida and Trump officials who requested to keep the Alligator Alcatraz immigrant detention facility open while they appeal her recent ruling.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams blocked the request late Wednesday, confirming her order to wind down operations at the Everglades facility within 60 days.
Williams issued a preliminary injunction to close the facility last week after ruling that state and federal officials failed to conduct an environmental-impact review.
The judge’s order prevents further expansion and bars new detainees from being transferred to Alligator Alcatraz, which serves as a temporary processing and holding facility while immigrants await deportation.
Border Czar Tom Homan joined Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” Thursday to sound off on the uncertain future of Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz.
Homan said he spent the entire day at the facility, touring the detention area, cafeteria and medical center. He said it was clean, well-kept and had trained medical staff.
“I don’t think this judge went down there and toured the facility because I think the decision is bad,” Homan said.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration immediately filed a notice of appeal to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta but the court has yet to rule on the matter. State officials are seeking to revoke Williams’ injunction, which essentially halts operations since new detainees cannot be housed there.
According to an email from a state official obtained by ABC News, the facility could be cleared out in a few days. Kevin Guthrie, the head of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, sent the email to the interfaith community.
The South Florida Interfaith Community wrote to the FDEM about allowing access to faith services at the facility in recent days.
“We are probably going to be down to 0 individuals within a few days,” Guthrie wrote.
Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in their request for a stay that Williams’ order, if carried out, would disrupt the federal government’s ability to enforce immigration laws.
They also argued that it would cost millions of dollars to wind down operations. The judge was not swayed.
“Again, as noted in the Order, Defendants constructed the facility in eight days and have repeatedly emphasized that the facility was designed and constructed to be temporary,” she wrote.
Florida officials opened the detention facility July 1 at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, which is built on an airstrip on the edge of the Big Cypress National Preserve.
Williams’ decision sides with environmental groups and advocates who filed a lawsuit to halt operations and expansion of the Everglades facility.
Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, joined by the Miccosukee Tribe, whose lawsuit led to the judge’s ruling, had opposed the request for a stay, NBC6 Miami reported.
As for the environmental concerns, Homan said the waste and potable water is taken off the facility daily, adding “it’s sitting on the existing concrete that was already there at the airport.”
“I think it’s a radical decision,” Homan said. “I think it’s really about anti-immigration enforcement rather than the condition of the facility.”
Homan said it was meant to be a transition facility not a long-term facility.
“We need more brick-and-mortar facilities,” he said. “Thank god some of the state governments are stepping up and helping.”
DeSantis recently announced that his administration is opening a new immigration detention facility in the state dubbed “Deportation Depot.”
Similar immigrant detention centers are popping up across red states, with Indiana’s Speedway Slammer and Nebraska’s Cornhusker Clink under construction.
Texas’ Lone Star Lockup has already opened its doors on the Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso, Texas, and is slated to become the largest-ever immigration detention facility in the nation.
Fox News’ correspondent Bill Melugin asked Homan about the cheeky names of the detention centers.
“I don’t want these names to detract from the hard work ICE agents are doing,” he said. “They are doing a difficult, dangerous job.”
Alligator Alcatraz, praised as an early model for the temporary holding and processing of illegal immigrants, has been hit with multiple lawsuits.
The detention center was quickly built two months ago at a lightly used, single-runway training airport in the middle of the Everglades. State officials signed more than $245 million in contracts for building and operating the facility.
The Friends of the Everglades lawsuit alleges state and federal officials violated the National Environmental Policy Act when constructing Alligator Alcatraz. The federal law requires evaluating potential environmental impacts before such a project can move forward.
Their lawsuit claims the facility threatened environmentally sensitive wetlands that are home to protected plants and animals and would reverse billions of dollars spent over decades on environmental restoration.
A third lawsuit challenging practices at the facility was filed last week by civil rights groups who claimed the state of Florida had no authority to run an immigration detention center.
In her 82-page ruling, Williams said within 60 days detainees needed to be transferred to other facilities, and once that happened, fencing, lighting, generators and other equipment should be removed.
The state filed a notice of appeal and maintains the facility was under the state of Florida’s jurisdiction. Both state and federal attorneys argued that NEPA did not apply because the facility, although it houses federal immigration detainees, is run by the state.
