Above video: 15-year-old Alligator Alcatraz detained
A senior Florida emergency official asked a federal judge on Monday to resist environmentalists’ demands to halt an immigration detention center known as “Crocodile Alcatraz” in the middle of the Florida Everglades.
The property is owned by Miami-Dade County, but the Southern District of Florida is the wrong place in the lawsuit as the detention center is located in nearby Collier County, located in the central district of the state. Decisions regarding the facility were also made in Tallahassee and Washington, with Kevin Guthrie, executive director of Florida Emergency Management, said in a court filing.
“And all the detention facilities, all the buildings, and all the problematic pavement is in Collier County, not Miami-Dade,” Guthrie said.
Attorney for the Environmental Group, Paul Schwip, responded at a virtual court hearing Monday that the Southern District was the right place to be, ever since a “slight portion of the event” took place in Miami-Dade County.
The environmental group filed a lawsuit against federal and state officials in the Southern District of Florida last month, sought a project to be built on the runway in the heart of the Florida Everglades as the process failed to comply with state and federal environmental laws.
Kathleen Williams of the US District had scheduled a June 30 hearing to consider whether the case was filed in the correct court. She also said at her hearing Monday he was trying to refrain from ruling on the Environmental Group’s request for a temporary restraining order and temporary restraining order that would halt the project until the Aug. 6 hearing in Miami.
The lawsuit was filed before the facility was opened to detainees, and Schwiep estimated at a hearing Monday that 900 people had been sent to “Alligator Alcatraz” over the past three weeks. Given that pace, Schwiep said the environmental group’s goal would like to stop further construction and moving additional people to the facility.
Critics have denounced the facility as a cruel and inhumane threat to ecologically sensitive wetlands, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican state officials have defended it as part of the state’s aggressive push to support President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
Homeland Security Secretary Christie Noem praised Florida for moving forward with the idea as the department is looking to significantly expand its immigration detention capabilities.
