OCHOPEE, Fla. — A federal judge’s landmark ruling against a controversial immigration detention center in the Everglades is now poised to affect a separate lawsuit over detainees’ legal rights, with another judge set to review the case next week.
The state-run facility, known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” was ordered to wind down operations after U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams found government defendants violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
This week, she denied a government request to pause her order.
“We are relieved to see the defendants complying with the judge’s order and moving detainees and equipment off the site, and when the last detainee leaves, we think they should turn off the lights and close the door behind them,” said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, one of the plaintiffs in the case.
“This was never an appropriate place for a detention center,” Samples said.
Former White House Border Czar Tom Homan defended the facility, saying, “It is built on existing infrastructure.”
Samples disputed that claim, citing testimony during hearings in August.
“So during the four days of hearing we had in court in August, we brought expert witnesses to testify about this exact claim and to refute it,” she said. “Witnesses that we brought in court testified about the 20 acres of new asphalt that were laid on the site, and they debunked the claim that this was over an old, existing concrete pad.”
Samples added that the ruling demonstrates that environmental laws apply to detention facilities.
“That requires them to look before they leap, when they take action like this, and that’s what the court concluded. We are prepared to defend that conclusion at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals,” she said.
Legal analysts say the outcome could spill into other cases tied to the center, including one over detainees’ First Amendment rights.
“If there’s no facility, then there’s nobody to need to have access to,” said legal analyst David Weinstein. “So that might moot out a couple of the other lawsuits that are pending as well. We’ll have to see how that all plays out.”
The First Amendment case, led by the group Sanctuary of the South, alleges detainees were denied timely and confidential access to attorneys and legal documents.
“Well, there is a lot happening with the center, as some folks may know, and it is changing every day. Right now, the judge has already signaled that they want to hear about the impact of the Friends of the Everglades case,” said Katie Blankenship, founding partner of Sanctuary of the South.
“It will obviously change the posture of the case, certainly if they go to zero individuals in detention. What I’ve heard is that they are complying with Judge Williams’ order, but Christina, I’ve yet to hear them say that they’re going to do the right thing, which is close the doors to this facility permanently. Until we hear that, our case continues,” she added.
Blankenship said she hopes the case sends a broader message.
“We hope that this is first a clear warning to ICE and any state actors that think that they’re going to engage in one of these detention centers that you have no business opening this sort of detention center when you are so ill equipped to humanely and responsibly house human beings,” she said. “But what we hope is that this case does, you know, give them pause before taking such egregious actions before and absolutely confirms a precedent for the importance of First Amendment rights for immigrants in ICE detention.”
The case was originally filed in South Florida, but U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz, a Trump appointee, granted the government’s request to transfer it to the Middle District of Florida. It is now before U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell, an Obama appointee, in Fort Myers.
Chappell has scheduled an in-person status conference for 1:30 p.m. on Sept. 4, where she has already indicated she wants to discuss the impact of Williams’ environmental ruling.
Read her order here:
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