Amid battles about the detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” the Trump administration has awarded $608 million to Florida for the state’s immigrant-detention efforts, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security official confirmed Thursday.
The funds came from $150 billion Congress funneled to the Federal Emergency Management Agency this year to assist with President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration sought federal money to cover the costs of Alligator Alcatraz, which is in the Everglades. The state opened another immigrant-detention center in Baker County last month.
Legal firestorm over environmental compliance
The Everglades facility, which began accepting detainees in July, has sparked legal challenges.
One of the lawsuits alleges that state and federal officials failed to comply with a federal law requiring an environmental-impact study before the facility could be constructed.
A key issue in the case has been a contention by DeSantis and federal officials that an environmental-impact study was not necessary because the site was being operated by the state and its contractors.
But Elise Bennett, a lawyer who is the Florida and Caribbean director at the Center for Biological Diversity, called the state’s receipt of the federal money “the smoking gun proving that our lawsuit challenging Alligator Alcatraz is entirely correct.”
The detention center is a “federal project being built with federal funds that’s required by federal law to go through a complete environmental review,” she said Thursday in a statement.
Court rulings and ecological concerns persist
The Florida Division of Emergency Management spent about $218 million to erect the facility, which had a capacity for 2,000 people and could be expanded, according to court records.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams issued an order telling the state to stop bringing in detainees and to wind down operations at the remote facility. But a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last month put Williams’ order on hold and allowed the state to continue using the detention center.
The Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Everglades and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida contend in the lawsuit that the facility, which is surrounded by Big Cypress National Preserve, threatens the environment and wildlife in the area. But state and federal officials say the facility is adjacent to a decades-old airstrip known as the Collier-Dade Training and Transition Center.
Speaking to reporters last week, DeSantis said federal officials “could do a very quick impact statement” to show that the site was not having a negative effect on the environment, but that a study was not necessary.
