The Trump administration Thursday argued a federal judge should deny a request to block operation of a detention center in the Everglades for undocumented immigrants, saying Florida has been responsible for the project dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”
U.S. Department of Justice attorneys filed a nine-page document opposing a request by environmental groups for a temporary restraining order to halt operation of the facility. Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit last week, accompanied by the request for a temporary restraining order.
The Justice Department attorneys said part of the lawsuit involves a federal law known as the Administrative Procedure Act. They said the environmental groups have not met a requirement under the law of showing a “final federal agency action.”
“DHS (the U.S. Department of Homeland Security) has not implemented, authorized, directed, or funded Florida’s temporary detention center,” the document said. “Florida is constructing and operating the facility using state funds on state lands under state emergency authority and a preexisting general delegation of federal authority to implement immigration functions. The ‘final agency action’ that the Administrative Procedure Act requires as a prerequisite to judicial review is entirely absent here.”
The document added that Florida “has received no federal funds, nor has it applied for federal funds related to the temporary detention center. Courts cannot adjudicate hypothetical future funding decisions or render advisory opinions on contingent scenarios that may never materialize.”
“Alligator Alcatraz” reportedly beginning to receive detainees
The filing came two days after President Donald Trump, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Gov. Ron DeSantis and other federal and state officials gathered at the site to tout the detention center, which has drawn national attention. The Miami Herald reported Thursday morning that the first detainees started arriving at the facility Wednesday night.
Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity contend in the lawsuit that the facility should be halted because it threatens environmentally sensitive areas and species in the surrounding Everglades and Big Cypress National Preserve. The state decided to build the facility at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, a remote site used for flight training.
In part, the lawsuit alleges federal and state agencies have violated the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires evaluating potential environmental impacts before such a project can move forward.
“In contrast to the significant environmental harms that will result from the construction of a detention center/airport in the middle of a national preserve, and the procedural harm from failing to comply with law requiring an assessment of such harms before proceeding, any harm defendants may shoulder if enjoined would be minimal at best,” the motion for a temporary restraining order said. “DHS (the Department of Homeland Security) already has and contracts with multiple detention centers in Florida and across the United States. To the extent that DHS claims to have insufficient capacity to detain people in response to its own initiative to ramp up apprehensions, that lack of planning does not require or justify bypassing federal laws to develop a new facility within a national preserve and next to a national park.”
Attorneys for the state on Monday filed a 22-page response arguing that U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez should turn down the request for a temporary restraining order. The state has indicated it will seek reimbursement from the federal government for the center’s costs.
State and federal attorneys contend that the environmental groups have not shown the project would cause “irreparable” harm to the surrounding areas. Also, they have cited the broader effort by the Trump administration and state Republican leaders to crack down on illegal immigration.
“Here, the significant national interest in combatting unlawful immigration favors allowing Florida to continue the development and use of its facility,” Justice Department attorneys wrote.
But in seeking the temporary restraining order, the environmental groups disputed such arguments.
“Putting aside whether intractable political gridlock over immigration reform constitutes an ’emergency,’ it does not give license to the state and federal governments to simply disregard the laws that govern federal projects affecting environmentally sensitive lands, essential waterways, national parks and preserves, and endangered species,” wrote attorneys from the Earthjustice legal organization, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Coffey Burlington law firm.
The lawsuit, filed in the federal Southern District of Florida, names as defendants Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie; Noem; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons; and Miami-Dade County. The county owns the site, which is also partly in Collier County.
