TALLAHASSEE — Environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit Friday to block a migrant detention center being built on an airstrip in the heart of the Florida Everglades.
And conservation group Audubon Florida Friday urged the state to seek out alternatives for the camp saying "there is only one Everglades."
Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity are the groups suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Florida Division of Emergency Management, and Miami-Dade County. Friends of the Everglades is represented by Earthjustice and Scott Hiaasen and Paul Schwiep.
“The site is more than 96% wetlands, surrounded by Big Cypress National Preserve, and is habitat for the endangered Florida panther and other iconic species. This scheme is not only cruel, it threatens the Everglades ecosystem that state and federal taxpayers have spent billions to protect,” said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades. “Friends of the Everglades was founded by Marjory Stoneman Douglas in 1969 to stop harmful development at this very location. Fifty-six years later, the threat has returned — and it poses another existential threat to the Everglades.”
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- Florida to build 'Alligator Alcatraz' detention center for migrants in Everglades
- Protest at detention center site decries use in national preserve area
The lawsuit seeks to halt the project until it undergoes a stringent environmental review as required by federal law. There is also supposed to be a chance for public comment, according to the lawsuit filed in Miami federal court.
The center dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" by Gov. Ron DeSantis is set to begin processing people who entered the U.S. illegally as soon as next week, the governor said Friday on "Fox and Friends."
Audubon Florida officials Friday issued a statement on the detention camp plan:
"For 125 years in Florida, Audubon has worked in partnership to advance durable conservation solutions which benefit birds, habitat and people. We were on the front lines in 1968 when bulldozers began clearing a massive tract of Everglades land for what was to become a regional airport hub between Miami and Naples, known as 'The Jetport'.
"Back then, there were no modern environmental assessments, permitting requirements with teeth, or substantial public transparency, but Floridians rallied and thwarted this catastrophic proposal that would have meant, in the words of the Nixon Administration’s Leopold Report, “death for the Everglades.” Any proposal for the use of this site in the middle of Big Cypress National Preserve should be considered with the transparency, accountability, and environmental review that modern Floridians now expect, and that our Everglades deserve.
"We believe the establishment of a detention center at this site is moving forward with haste and has not met these expectations."
The nature organization said that while it recognizes the state’s authority under emergency order to fast track work for temporary site use, they oppose this use for the site and urge the administration to simultaneously evaluate capacity needs and alternative locations.
"A priority should be placed on more economical and resilient site options without substantial risk to the public’s investment in Everglades Restoration or the residents of the nearby Miccosukee Indian Village," Audubon Florida's statement continued. "The Everglades is the foundation of South Florida’s quality of life, economic prosperity, and drinking water. Alternatives exist, and there is only one Everglades."
Meanwhile, the state has been plowing ahead with building a compound of heavy-duty tents, trailers and other temporary buildings at the Miami Dade County-owned airfield in the Big Cypress National Preserve, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of downtown Miami.
DeSantis is relying on state emergency powers to commandeer the county-owned airstrip and build the compound, over the concerns of county officials, environmentalists and human rights advocates.
The state is also considering standing up another site at a National Guard training facility in northeast Florida as well.
"We'll probably also do something similar up at Camp Blanding," DeSantis said, adding that the Florida Division of Emergency Management is "working on that."
State officials have said they're drafting evacuation plans in the event detainees have to be relocated ahead of a natural disaster, as Florida braces for what forecasters have warned could be another unusually busy hurricane season.
Hurricane preparations are happening at the same time as site development planning, a spokesperson for DeSantis said, adding that having emergency storm plans in place is "standard procedure" for all state facilities.
"The facility will be evacuated if a tropical cyclone with windspeeds higher than the temporary facility's wind rating is forecasted to impact the area," said Molly Best, deputy press secretary for DeSantis. She did not specify what the site's wind rating is.
"FDEM is coordinating with several partners on potential locations for relocation, but ultimately it will be scenario dependent based on facility population and the projected storm path," Best said.
But critics said that isn't enough.
“This plan has had none of the environmental review that’s required by federal law,” said Tania Galloni, managing attorney for the Florida office of Earthjustice. “Cruelty aside, it defies common sense to put a mass of people, vehicles, and development in one of the most significant wetlands in the world. That’s why we’re going to court.”
The Everglades is 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. In 2010 it was designated as an endangered UNESCO World Heritage site.
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