Officials withheld evidence on Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ funding, environmental groups say
ORLANDO, Florida — Federal and state officials covered up evidence that the Department of Homeland Security agreed to reimburse Florida for part of the costs of building an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” according to environmental groups who sued to shut down the facility.
The Everglades Center remains open and still holding inmates, as an appeals court in early September relied on arguments from Florida and the Trump administration that the state had not yet requested federal reimbursement and was therefore not required to comply with federal environmental law.
The new evidence — emails and documents obtained through a public records request — show that officials had discussed federal reimbursement in June and that the Federal Emergency Management Agency confirmed in early August that it had received a grant request from state officials. Florida was notified in late September that FEMA had approved $608 million in federal funding to support the construction and operation of the center.
“We now know that the federal and state governments had documents confirming that they had worked closely on this facility from the beginning, but they failed to disclose them to the district court,” said Tania Galloni, one of the environmental groups’ attorneys.
An Atlanta appeals panel temporarily stayed a lower court judge’s ruling that would have closed the state-built facility. The new evidence must now be considered as judges decide the permanent fate of the facility, Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity said in court papers Wednesday.
In mid-August, a federal judge in Miami ordered the facility to cease operations for two months because officials had failed to conduct an environmental impact assessment of the detention center, in accordance with federal law. This judge concluded that a reimbursement decision had already been made.
The Florida Department of Emergency Management, which led the construction effort at the Everglades facility, did not respond to an emailed inquiry Thursday.
Florida has led other states in building facilities to support President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. In addition to the Everglades Center, which received its first detainees in July, Florida opened an immigration detention center in Northeast Florida and plans to open a third in the Florida Panhandle.
The environmental lawsuit is one of three federal legal challenges to the Everglades facility. In the other cases, inmates said Florida agencies and private contractors hired by the state had no authority to operate the center under federal law. They are also seeking a ruling guaranteeing access to confidential communications with their lawyers.
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