‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Can Continue Operating, Appeals Court Says

Authored by Troy Myers via The Epoch Times,

A federal appeals court on Tuesday pulled a judge’s previous order to dismantle the high-profile detention center in the Florida Everglades for illegal immigrants, known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”

In a 2–1 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit sided with the Trump administration’s argument that there was minimal federal involvement in the facility’s construction, so a federal environmental review was not warranted.

“Using state employees and state funds, Florida officials, on their own initiative, constructed a detention center at an airport on state property in the Florida Everglades,” court documents showed.

Two environmental groups, Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, joined the Miccosukee Tribe, which has villages close to the facility, in challenging construction of Alligator Alcatraz.

The groups accused state and federal officials of rushing to build the facility and failing to conduct an environmental review as required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

That federal law, passed in 1970, requires federal agencies to evaluate environmental impacts of proposed major construction.

Construction began last year on the facility, located at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in the Everglades, to assist with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement and detainment of illegal aliens.

A lower court in August sided with the environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe, ordering officials to halt construction and even undo some work that had already been finished. But the higher court’s Tuesday order lifted that.

Federal authorities inspected the site for compliance with federal standards, court documents said, but this wasn’t enough to trigger a federally mandated environmental review.

“Because the environmentalists and Tribe failed to prove either a final agency action or federal control, and because the injunction, in part, violates a statutory prohibition of enjoining immigration enforcement, we vacate and remand,” Chief Judge William Pryor wrote in the federal appeals court ruling.

The 11th circuit has now twice lifted orders to halt construction—Tuesday’s ruling and again back in September.

“Victory secured against activist judge who held me in contempt,” Florida’s Attorney General James Uthmeier wrote on X in response to the 11th circuit’s September decision.

“A win for Florida and President [Donald] Trump’s agenda!”

Friends of the Everglades and the Miccosukee Tribe did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Center for Biological Diversity, however, issued a news release Tuesday in response to the latest legal development, calling it a “temporary” setback.

Wildlife and ecosystems remain imperiled, the group said.

“This disappointing decision won’t stop our challenges to the numerous environmental violations that the Trump administration is overseeing there,” Elise Bennett, director and senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said. “We’ll keep fighting because the Trump and DeSantis administrations’ obsession with sacrificing our Everglades, endangered panthers and wild waters to their cruel detention center is utterly indefensible.”

The groups further argue there was enough federal involvement to warrant a federal environmental review. The Center for Biological Diversity said FEMA committed hundreds of millions of dollars to Florida for building and operating the facility.

Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, had a statement in the news release as well, saying, “This fight is far from over.”

“Alligator Alcatraz was hastily erected in one of the most fragile ecosystems in the country without the most basic environmental review, at immense human and ecological cost,” she said.

Samples added that she is pursuing every legal avenue available to shut down Alligator Alcatraz.