A judge is set to hear arguments to decide whether to halt operations due to environmental concerns
The Florida migrant detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz” could potentially be shut down due to environmental concerns, with a judge set to hear arguments on the matter on Wednesday.
ABC News detailed that there will be an evidentiary hearing over whether to block operations at the facility because construction allegedly by passed the environmental impact studies required by the federal government.
The outlet added that the hearing will be limited to environmental issues, but testimonies are also expected to further illustrate conditions at the facility. Plaintiffs are alleging that operations are endangering the Big Cypress National Preserve and the Big Cypress Area, considered ecologically sensitive and protected. They hold threatened species including the Everglade snail kite, the Florida panther, wood stork and the Florida bonneted bat.
The Miccosukee Indian Tribe, which has leased land next to Alligator Alcatraz, joined the lawsuit last month, claiming that it threatens to damage tribal villages.
“The hasty transformation of the Site into a mass detention facility, which includes the installation of housing units, construction of sanitation and food services systems, industrial high-intensity lighting infrastructure, diesel power generators, substantial fill material altering the natural terrain, and provision of transportation logistics (including apparent planned use of the runway to receive and deport detainees) poses clear environmental impacts,” reads a passage of the lawsuit.
Florida Department of Emergency Management executive director Kevin Guthrie, named as a defendant in the case, said the state is not subjected to the required regulations. He added that the environmental impact is low because the location was already an active airfield.
Advocates are also calling for the facility to be shut down as they decry “unlivable” conditions that include mosquitoe-ridden units and lights being on all the time.
“Detention conditions are unlivable,” Tessa Petit, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, said in a press conference in late July, as reported by NBC News.
In another passage of the conference, Rafael Collado, an inmate being held there, said through his wife’s mobile phone that the place is “like a dog cage.” He added that poor sanitation and floodwater from recent storms led him to get fungus on his feet.
Collado went on to claim detainees are stripped naked when moved between cells and that he has no schedule to take blood pressure medication. He was then told by a guard to end the call.
Juan Palma, another detainee, told the outlet that he feels like his life is in danger. He added he feels in a constant “state of torture.”
