ORLANDO, Fla. 鈥� An immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades known as will remain open, an appeals court decided Tuesday, upholding its earlier decision to block a judge's order for the facility to wind down operations because it didn't comply with federal environmental law.
A majority on the three-judge panel from the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals said the Florida-run facility wasn't under federal control and didn't need to comply with federal law requiring an environmental impact review.
鈥淔lorida, not federal, officials constructed the facility,鈥� a majority of the judges wrote. 鈥淭hey control the land and 鈥榚ntirely鈥� built the facility at state expense.鈥�
READ MORE: Lawyer says guards beat and pepper-sprayed detainees at Florida's 'Alligator Alcatraz'
At the time of U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams鈥� preliminary injunction, Florida had received no federal reimbursement, the appellate majority wrote. Williams concluded that a reimbursement decision already had been made.
The appeals court paused Williams' order just days after she issued it last August, pending a hearing. The hearing was held earlier this month in Miami.
Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, two of the that had brought the lawsuit, said they would continue fighting as the case returns to the district court for further litigation.
鈥淭his fight is far from over," said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades. 鈥淎lligator Alcatraz was hastily erected in one of the most fragile ecosystems in the country without the most basic environmental review, at immense human and ecological cost.鈥�
鈥淲e are pursuing every legal avenue available to right this wrong," she said. "Alligator Alcatraz will go down in history as a boondoggle to taxpayers and a flagrant assault on the Everglades, and we look forward to returning to the district court to advance our case to shut it down."
In a statement, Elise Bennett, Florida and Caribbean director and senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said "we鈥檒l keep fighting because the Trump and DeSantis administrations鈥� obsession with sacrificing our Everglades, endangered panthers and wild waters to their cruel detention center is utterly indefensible.鈥�
the Everglades detention center last summer to support President Donald Trump鈥檚 immigration crackdown. Earlier this month, a lawyer for two people detained there said in court papers and pepper-sprayed detainees.
In a dissent to the appellate panel's ruling, Judge Nancy Abudu wrote that immigration is a federal responsibility, and just because Florida built an immigration detention facility, it doesn't allow the federal government to abdicate its authority.
鈥淭he facility would not, and could not, have been built and used as an immigration detention center without the federal defendants鈥� request,鈥� Abudu said. 鈥淭he evidence of federal control perhaps is most apparent when we acknowledge that immigration remains uniquely and exclusively within the federal government鈥檚 domain.鈥�
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SA国际传谋 News Staff contributed to this story.
