Amid battles concerning the detention heart dubbed Alligator Alcatraz, the Trump administration has awarded $608 million to Florida for the state’s immigrant-detention efforts, a U.S. Division of Homeland Safety official confirmed Thursday.
The funds got here from $150 billion Congress funneled to the Federal Emergency Administration Company this yr to help with President Donald Trump’s crackdown on unlawful immigration.
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration sought federal cash to cowl the prices of Alligator Alcatraz within the Everglades. The state opened one other immigrant-detention heart in Baker County final month.
Alligator Alcatraz, which started accepting detainees in July, has sparked authorized challenges.
One of many lawsuits alleges that state and federal officers did not adjust to a federal regulation requiring an environmental-impact research earlier than the ability might be constructed. A key subject within the case has been a rivalry by DeSantis and federal officers that an environmental-impact research was not needed as a result of the web site was being operated by the state and its contractors.
However Elise Bennett, a lawyer who’s the Florida and Caribbean director on the Middle for Organic Range, referred to as the state’s receipt of the federal cash “the smoking gun proving that our lawsuit difficult Alligator Alcatraz is totally right.”
The detention heart is a “federal undertaking being constructed with federal funds that’s required by federal regulation to undergo a whole environmental assessment,” she stated Thursday in a press release. The Florida Division of Emergency Administration spent about $218 million to erect the ability, which had a capability for two,000 individuals and might be expanded, in accordance with court docket data. U.S. District
Decide Kathleen Williams issued an order telling the state to cease bringing in detainees and to wind down operations on the distant facility. However a three-judge panel of the eleventh U.S. Circuit Court docket of Appeals final month put Williams’ order on maintain and allowed the state to proceed utilizing the detention heart.
The Middle for Organic Range, Pals of the Everglades and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida contend within the lawsuit that the ability, which is surrounded by Massive Cypress Nationwide Protect, threatens the setting and wildlife within the space.
However state and federal officers say the ability is adjoining to a decades-old airstrip referred to as the Collier-Dade Coaching and Transition Middle.
Talking to reporters final week, DeSantis stated federal officers “might do a really fast affect assertion” to point out that the positioning was not having a unfavorable impact on the setting, however {that a} research was not needed.