The judge also ordered that some other aspects of the facility be dismantled as current detainees are moved elsewhere.
A federal judge on Aug. 21 ordered President Donald Trump and the state of Florida to stop sending detainees to “Alligator Alcatraz,” a detention center for illegal immigrants in the Everglades, and barred new construction there.
U.S. Judge Kathleen Williams, a lower court judge in the District Court for the Southern District of Florida, sided with environmental groups who had brought suit against the facility, saying that it endangers the Everglades and its wildlife.
Located 37 miles west of Miami, the detention center’s name comes from the vast swaths of surrounding wetlands that encircle the facility, which are home to alligators, crocodiles, and pythons.
The facility, which is being used to house illegal immigrants detained as part of the administration’s mass deportation operation, costs around $450 million annually and can house about 5,000 detainees.
Though the order doesn’t entirely shutter the facility, it drastically dismisses its capabilities.
In a court order, Williams said that authorities cannot “[bring] any additional persons onto the site who were not already being detained at the site at the time of this Order going into effect.”
Williams also ordered that some other aspects of the facility be dismantled as current detainees are moved elsewhere.
Specifically, authorities have been banned from “installing any additional industrial-style lighting … or doing any paving, filling, excavating, or fencing, or … any other site expansion,” Williams wrote.
In June, two environmental groups filed a motion that asked the court to block further construction at the facility, saying it violated laws at the local, state, and federal level.
Williams wrote that the decision on Thursday was driven by a desire to align with Florida environmental law protecting the endangered Everglades.
For several years, “every Florida governor, every Florida senator, and countless local and national political figures, including presidents, have publicly pledged their unequivocal support for the restoration, conservation, and protection of the Everglades,” Williams wrote.
“This order does nothing more than uphold the basic requirements of legislation designed to fulfill those promises,” she continued.
Florida, which has been coordinating in constructing the facility with the Trump administration, immediately filed an appeal.
By Joseph Lord
