Photo by Bruce Warrington via Unsplash
Several environmental protection groups have filed lawsuits against the construction of an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades, nicknamed 'Alligator Alcatraz.' Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, represented by the legal advocacy group EarthJustice, announced their lawsuit in a press release obtained by Más Latino on Friday 27th.
“Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit today in federal district court in the United States to protect the Florida Everglades from an irresponsible plan to build a massive detention center to hold people arrested in immigration raids.”
This lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court and names the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Florida Division of Emergency Management, and Miami-Dade County as defendants. EarthJustice and attorneys Scott Hiaasen and Paul Schwiep represent the plaintiffs.
Alligator Alcatraz
The lawsuit is about the construction of an immigration detention center in a previously undeveloped area of the Everglades. This area has remained free of industrial interference for nearly 70 years. The State of Florida attempted to build an airport in the area, but environmental groups successfully blocked the construction to protect the local wilderness.
Protesters who criticized the proposed prison's cruel design dubbed it "Alligator Alcatraz." The prison will use the swampy areas of the Everglades as a natural barrier, supposedly hoping to lure prisoners who try to escape. This is where the comparison to Alcatraz comes from. The notorious prison was built on an island and used the surrounding shark-infested waters as a natural barrier.
The activist groups' press release describes their concerns about the construction of this detention center:
“As the lawsuit points out, the plan has not undergone any environmental review, as required by federal law, and the public has had no opportunity to comment. Despite this, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has moved forward with the development of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, located approximately two hours west of Miami and one hour east of Naples, with the intention of detaining up to 5,000 people there.”
The Importance of the Everglades
The Everglades are a crucial area for Florida's biodiversity. As the Friends of the Everglades statement explains, the Everglades comprise the largest mangrove ecosystem in the Western Hemisphere. They are also the largest continuous sawgrass prairie and the most important breeding area for wading birds in North America.
“This massive detention center will ruin one of the world's most iconic ecosystems,” said Elise Bennett, Florida and Caribbean director and staff attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity.
Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, says, “The site is comprised of more than 96 acres of wetlands, surrounded by the Big Cypress National Preserve, and is habitat for the endangered Florida panther and other iconic species. This plan is not only cruel, but also jeopardizes the Everglades ecosystem, which state and federal taxpayers have funded billions to protect.”
The construction of “Alligator Alcatraz” represents a combination of two of the most controversial ideals of Donald Trump’s presidency. These are his absolute concentration against illegal immigration, and his mission to unprotect and sell off millions of acres of protected land. The rest of the country watches anxiously as Florida protects its natural beauty against the ambitions of the political world.
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