Heading to the Supreme Court

A federal judge in Miami gave the state of Florida 60 days to clear out the immigrant detention facility called Alligator Alcatraz, handing environmentalists and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians a win after they clashed with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) over the environmental impacts the makeshift site was having in the federally protected Everglades.

  WaPo

Kind of like getting Al Capone on tax evasion charges. Whatever works.

The state filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit less than an hour after the judge issued her order.

Maybe won't have to go all the way to the top.

Her order expands the pause on new construction that was part of a temporary restraining order two weeks ago and directs the state and federal governments and contractors to begin dismantling the center, including fencing, lighting, generators and all waste receptacles “that were installed to support this project.”

[...]

In her ruling, Williams said an environmental assessment was required before the site was erected in the Everglades, but “the Defendants chose not to do so.”

Despite what DeSantis described as a facility that would have “zero” impact on the surrounding wetlands, Williams cited expert testimony and said the project will have “considerable environmental impacts” and should have been reviewed by relevant federal agencies. The project “creates irreparable harm in the form of habitat loss and increased mortality to endangered species in the area,” including the Florida panther, she wrote.

[...]

A July 29 “Preliminary Ecological Assessment” by a state contractor noted at least 10 endangered or threatened species in the area, including the Everglade snail kite, wood storks and the bonneted bat.

MAGA thinks endangered species protection is bullshit anyway.

A 10,499-foot runway is all that remains of a 1960s plan to build the world’s largest airport. Environmentalists, led by renowned Everglades conservationist Marjory Stoneman Douglas, managed to thwart the project and get the federal government to protect nearly a million wetland acres. The organization Douglas created to fight the jetport, Friends of the Everglades, was among the groups that sued over Alligator Alcatraz.

The site has no electricity, so everything is powered by generators, including portable air conditioners. Drinking and bathing water has to be trucked in, and sewage, trash and wastewater trucked out.

[...]

Environmentalists presented photos and other evidence in court that showed the state paved over at least 20 adjacent acres of wetlands. Security lighting there turned a DarkSky International location — one of only two in the Southeast — into a brightly lit compound visible from 15 miles away.

[...]

The first tents and detention cages went up on June 23 after the state seized the property from Miami-Dade County under a two-year-old emergency order issued by DeSantis (R).

[...]

It would house up to 5,000 men and women awaiting deportation, according to the governor, though to date its greatest count has been about 1,000 people. U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost (D) visited Wednesday to try meeting relatives of constituents and said afterward that only 346 men were there.

A separate lawsuit over detainees’ legal rights, brought by the ACLU and other groups, was in part dismissed late Monday when U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz ruled some of their claims moot. He then moved the remainder of the case to a different jurisdiction.

[...]

Last week, DeSantis moved to convert an old prison in North Florida into a second immigrant detention site, which he named “Deportation Depot.” Some Democratic lawmakers said the announcement signaled that the state was worried about having to close down Alligator Alcatraz and find a place for the detainees there.