U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center “Alligator Alcatraz,” located in the Florida Everglades, will remain open following an appeals court decision. The appeals court upheld its previous decision to halt a judge’s order for the center to cease operations.
According to the Associated Press (AP), a majority on the three-judge panel from the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that the state-run institution was not under federal control. The judges argued that the center did not need to comply with federal law requiring an environmental impact review, countering U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams’ preliminary injunction.
“Florida, not federal, officials constructed the facility,” the majority wrote. “They control the land and ‘entirely’ built the facility at state expense.”
Appeals Court's Decision to Halt District Judge's Order
The appellate majority stated that at the time of Judge Williams’ ruling, the state of Florida had not received any federal reimbursement, despite Williams’ conclusion that a reimbursement decision already had been made.
“The appeals court paused Williams’ order just days after she issued it last August, pending a hearing. The hearing was held earlier this month in Miami,” the AP wrote.
Dissent Over Appeals Court's Decision
“This fight is far from over,” Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, assured. Friends of the Everglades is one of the environmental groups that initially brought the lawsuit.
“Alligator Alcatraz was hastily erected in one of the most fragile ecosystems in the country without the most basic environmental review, at immense human and ecological cost,” Samples added.
U.S. Judge for the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, Nancy Abudu, expressed her opposition to the appellate panel’s decision, writing that immigration is a federal responsibility. Judge Abudu argued that just because the state of Florida built an immigration detention center, it does not relinquish the federal government’s authority.
“The facility would not, and could not, have been built and used as an immigration detention center without the federal defendants’ request,” Abudu said. “The evidence of federal control perhaps is most apparent when we acknowledge that immigration remains uniquely and exclusively within the federal government’s domain.”
