Previous coverage: Florida appeals order to delay operations of Alligator Alcatraz Island
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) – A federal lawsuit that temporarily halted operations at an immigrant detention center in Florida’s Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz” was put on hold Wednesday by an appeals court due to the government shutdown.
Earlier this month, U.S. government lawyers asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to halt proceedings in the case because funding to the Justice Department and the defendants, the Department of Homeland Security, had expired due to the government shutdown.
They called for a moratorium until appropriations were restored by Congress.
The appeals court granted the request Wednesday. The facility is built and operated by the state of Florida and its private contractors, but federal regulators have approved reimbursing the state $608 million.
Lawyers for environmental groups that sued the federal and state governments over environmental issues at the facility said President Donald Trump’s administration had filed hundreds of lawsuits across the country during the shutdown.
“The government appears to have enough money and staff to operate a detention center in the heart of the Everglades to detain foreign-born workers, but not enough to submit a brief to a court justifying the government’s actions that a trial court found illegal,” said Paul Schweep, one of the attorneys.
Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, along with the Mikkosukee Tribe, sued federal and state officials this summer for failing to follow federal laws requiring environmental reviews of detention centers in the middle of sensitive wetlands.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams agreed and issued the order in August, ruling that the facility must wind down operations within two months. However, in early September, an Atlanta appellate court panel issued an injunction, suspending the injunction and allowing the facility to continue operating pending the outcome of the appeal.
The federal government’s opening appeal brief was scheduled to be filed Friday.
Two other lawsuits challenging Everglades Detention Center operations are underway in federal court in Florida.
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