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A United States federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Thursday (August 22), halting further expansion and ordering the closure of a Florida immigration detention centre that had earned the moniker “Alligator Alcatraz”. The name comes from Alcatraz Island, a former prison located on an island near San Francisco and deemed impossible to escape, as well as the significant alligator population in the state.
It was set up around two months ago in the Florida Everglades National Park, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The location has come under fire for its facilities and treatment of detainees, as well as alleged environmental violations.
US President Donald Trump visited the centre last month, praising it as a model worth emulating for other states. Why was it set up, and what is the rationale for the court’s order?
The migrant detention centre was established amid the Trump administration’s increased focus on targeting immigration into the US. “We had a request from the federal government to (create the facility), and so ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ it is,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had said.
“Clearly from a security perspective, if someone escapes, there’s a lot of alligators you’re going to have to contend (with),” DeSantis said. “No one is going anywhere once you do that. It’s as safe and secure as you can be.”
What was previously the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport for pilots was transformed into a tent city with a capacity for housing upto 5,000 people.
It was also seen as an extension of Trump’s continued fascination with the original Alcatraz prison, located on an island off San Francisco and closed more than 60 years ago. He ordered officials to examine potentially reopening it, and said in May this year that the prison would serve as a “symbol of law, order, and justice.”
Several media reports have claimed that the setup includes large white tents and bunk beds surrounded by chain-link cages. “Toilets don’t flush, flooding floors with fecal waste, and mosquitoes and other insects are everywhere,” the Associated Press reported. Meals were also not being provided on time or in adequate quantities, but state officials denied such reports.
The current injunction comes as the court hears a lawsuit brought on by environmental groups. Arguing to block further construction, environmental and tribal groups said such activities could adversely impact sensitive wetland ecosystems, endangered species and essential waterways.
District Court Judge Kathleen Williams also wrote in her order about a plan to aid tourism in the 1960s in the Everglades that was eventually rejected. Since then, “every Florida governor, every Florida senator, and countless local and national political figures, including presidents, have publicly pledged their unequivocal support for the restoration, conservation, and protection of the Everglades,” she wrote.
UNESCO describes the national park as being located at “the interface of temperate and sub-tropical America, fresh and brackish water, shallow bays and deeper coastal waters creates a complex of habitats supporting a high diversity of flora and fauna. It contains the largest mangrove ecosystem in the Western Hemisphere, the largest continuous stand of sawgrass prairie and the most significant breeding ground for wading birds in North America.”
The ruling has now given the state 60 days to stop its operations, and the state government has also filed an appeal.
