Environmentalists’ lawsuit to halt ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ filed in wrong court, Florida official says

Florida’s top emergency official asked a federal judge on Monday to resist a request by environmentalists to halt an immigration detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz” in the middle of the Florida Everglades because their lawsuit was filed in the wrong jurisdiction.

Even though the property is owned by Miami-Dade County, Florida’s southern district is the wrong venue for the lawsuit since the detention center is located in neighboring Collier County, which is in the state’s middle district. Decisions about the facility also were made in Tallahassee and Washington, Kevin Guthrie, executive director for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said in a court filing.

“And all the detention facilities, all the buildings, and all the paving at issue are sited in Collier County, not Miami-Dade,” Guthrie said.

Paul Schwiep, an attorney for the environmental groups, responded during a virtual court hearing on Monday that the southern district was the proper venue since “a substantial portion of the events” took place in Miami-Dade County.

Later, in a statement, Schwiep called the state’s concerns about the jurisdiction “an obvious attempt at judge-shopping” since the newly-assigned judge presiding over the case, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams, had recently found Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier in contempt for ignoring her orders in another case.

“The state had no objection to venue in the Southern District of Florida until this case was reassigned to Judge Williams,” Schwiep said. “The state of Florida commandeered the detention center site from Miami-Dade County, the site is partially within Miami-Dade County, the county is a defendant, and the case was appropriately filed in Miami-Dade County.”

Environmental groups filed the lawsuit against federal and state officials in Florida’s southern district last month, asking for the project being built on an airstrip in the heart of the Florida Everglades to be halted because the process didn’t follow state and federal environmental laws.

Williams scheduled a July 30 hearing to consider whether the lawsuit was filed in the correct court. She also said during Monday’s hearing that she was going to hold off ruling on the environmental groups’ request for a temporary restraining order and temporary injunction stopping the project until an Aug. 6 hearing in Miami.

The lawsuit was filed before the facility was opened to detainees, and Schwiep estimated during Monday’s hearing that 900 people have been sent to “Alligator Alcatraz” in the past three weeks. Given that pace, Schwiep said the environmental groups’ goal wanted to halt further construction and the movement of additional people to the facility.

Critics have condemned the facility as a cruel and inhumane threat to the ecologically sensitive wetlands, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican state officials have defended it as part of the state’s aggressive push to support President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has praised Florida for coming forward with the idea, as the department looks to significantly expand its immigration detention capacity.

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This story has been corrected to reflect that the date of the hearing over the jurisdiction question is July 30, not June 30.

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