By Liv Caputo, Florida Phoenix
Florida’s migrant lockup in the Everglades doesn’t have to comply with federal environmental laws because it’s entirely state run and lacks federal funding, a three-judge panel has ruled in kicking the case back to a lower court.
“The environmentalists and (the Miccosukee) Tribe must prove both that the facility was federally funded and that it was subject to federal control,” Chief Judge William Pryor of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit wrote in the majority opinion handed down Tuesday, explaining how the plaintiffs trying to shut down the facility could have moved forward with their case against the state.
But “they failed to do so,” partly because “the facility is not federally controlled” and partly because Florida has yet to see one cent of the long-promised federal reimbursements for the South Florida detention site that the state is calling “Alligator Alcatraz,” the George W. Bush appointee wrote.
“Until Homeland Security officials decide to fund the facility, no final agency action occurs,” Pryor added.
The ruling scathes a lower court for trying to shutter the tent camp and nullifies claims that officials violated the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires the federal government to analyze potential environmental damage before undertaking projects.
The order falls amid the winding tale of the environment and the facility.
For eight months, Florida officials went unreimbursed for $608 million for the center because the federal government hadn’t completed an environmental review.
Although the hold was lifted in March — months after the facility’s July opening date — Florida still can’t receive the federal dollars because the agency in charge of distributing them, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is off the clock amid the two-month partial government shutdown.
The case at hand was brought by the Miccosukee Tribe, Friends of the Everglades and Center for Biological Diversity in June, days after the state announced plans to convert the largely abandoned Dade-Collier Training and Transition airport in the remote Everglades into “Alligator Alcatraz.”
The environmentalists sued to shut down the facility because a federal environmental review required under the National Environmental Policy Act wasn’t completed, and because they said keystone species could be endangered by human activity in the sensitive habitat.
In August, District Judge Kathleen Williams agreed with them. She issued a preliminary injunction ordering the site shut down.
But a three-judge panel in the Eleventh Circuit — different from Tuesday’s grouping — reversed course a month later, halting the lower judge’s order.
Tuesday’s ruling vacated Williams’ injunction and sent the case back to her courtroom. Pryor and Trump appointee Judge Andrew Brasher had harsh words for her, claiming she “abused her discretion” in trying to shut down the center.
Judge Nancy Abudu, a Biden appointee, dissented. She defended Williams, arguing Pryor and Brasher were improperly accusing her of error.
“We are not supposed to redetermine the facts for ourselves,” she wrote. “The majority ignores the district court’s careful and extensive fact finding, attributing fault and error where there was none.”
As for the subject matter?
“So long as Florida remains a willing participant in the federal government’s immigration detention scheme, it subjects itself to the federal government’s substantial control over the parties’ joint efforts, which is the necessary trigger for NEPA’s application in this case,” she wrote.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Banner photo: President Donald Trump and other officials tour “Alligator Alcatraz” on July 1 (DHSgov, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons).
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