Even as Florida moves detainees from ‘Alligator Alcatraz’, activists fight for its permanent closure | Florida
An alliance of environmental groups welcomed news that detainees were being moved from Florida’s infamous “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration prison, but vowed to take legal action to ensure its permanent closure and restoration of the sensitive Everglades wetlands where it is located.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and officials in Florida “removed illegal aliens from the soft-side facility,” the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement late Tuesday. [and] He stated that they transferred them to other facilities for their safety, citing the start of the Atlantic hurricane season this month.
But despite reports last month that the detention facility’s closure was imminent, neither DHS nor state officials have confirmed any plans. An observer in the remote area on Wednesday said buses apparently carrying detainees continued to come and go, while supplies, including jet fuel, were still being delivered.
Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said about 22,000 undocumented immigrants have passed through the prison since it opened last July. in question last month.
Plaintiffs at a press conference Wednesday a case People who want the prison closed and the site fully renovated say they will return to district court in Miami this month to achieve their goal, citing DHS’s “lack of transparency.”
“We don’t know what they did, but we think the judge will get to the bottom of it and get definitive answers about what their long-term plans are,” said Paul Schwiep, an attorney who represents groups including Friends of the Everglades, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians.
“Our work will not be done until the lights are out, the fences are taken down, the tents are taken down and a commitment is made that there will be no rebuilding.”
Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, said she was skeptical of DHS’s statement.
“If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the last year, it’s that we can’t trust the word of government officials involved in this project,” he said.
“If this is really true, this is good news, but the damage continues,” he said.
Elise Bennett, attorney and Florida and Caribbean director for the Center for Biological Diversity, said continued judicial review of the detention center is crucial. He said DeSantis bears responsibility for the environmental damage caused by the prison’s hasty construction by the state and its use last summer as a government detention and deportation facility.
“If there is actually no one detained at the facility, that’s an important milestone, but that’s not the end of the matter for us,” he said.
“We will not allow the Trump and DeSantis administrations to quietly walk away from the Alligator Alcatraz and pretend this never happened. Diesel generators run around the clock, spreading air pollution into the environment. [the] Big Cypress [national preserve]surrounding communities and the Everglades.
“Some of these generators run lights 24/7 that continue to shine in the night sky, disrupting and destroying the nighttime foraging habitat of endangered Florida bonneted bats and Florida panthers. And we know that 20 or more acres of new paving contributes unpolluted storm runoff to surrounding wetlands.”
“We are committed to ensuring the complete and final closure of the internment camp and the full restoration of the Big Cypress for the people and rare and endangered species that depend on it.”
The case continues later this month before Miami district court judge Kathleen Williams, who issued a preliminary injunction ordering the detention center’s closure last year. His decision was overturned by a three-judge appeals panel that included the wife of an attorney whose firm made millions of dollars working for the DeSantis administration.
Schwiep said the alliance will continue its demand for a permanent prison closure, for which DeSantis has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money, much of which is taken from the state’s emergency preparedness and response budgets.
“They built a secret workhouse in the Everglades without a single permit, without any environmental review, without complying with environmental laws, and now they hope they can slip away in the middle of the night without revealing to anyone what they did, why they did it, or how they propose to clean up the mess they made,” he said.
“We don’t plan on letting him get away with this.”
Separately, an immigration advocacy group that has been keeping watch at the prison every Sunday since it opened last summer criticized DHS for claiming the reason for moving detainees was the start of hurricane season on June 1.
“As Floridians will remember, the Alligator Alcatraz opened during hurricane season last year, so their overdue concern for the welfare of the people detained there, chained and put in torture boxes, denied medical treatment, pepper-bombed, given rotten food, sapped credulity,” said Noelle Damico, Labor’s social justice director.
“Through 47 consecutive weeks of public protests, testimony in Congress, conscience-shattering media reports and pressure on lawmakers, thousands upon thousands of people have made it politically toxic to continue operations; the moral and financial cost is too high.
“We will verify all people’s claims that they have moved and, through our legal partner Sanctuary of the South, providing people with free legal advice Wherever they land, keep up the pressure until Crocodile Alcatraz is completely sealed off.”
