A Florida judge is set to consider whether to order the shutdown of the immigrant detention center known as "Alligator Alcatraz" over claims that it could cause "irreparable" harm to the Everglades area in which it is set up.
The Miami Herald noted that the groups are seeking a preliminary injunction to stop operations at the site. They are Friends of the Everglades, the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice and the Miccosukee Tribe.
They sued the Trump and DeSantis administrations, accusing them of dodging a federal law requiring an environmental review of the site before pursuing the initiative. The injunction would stop all operations and further halt construction until there is a verdict.
Last week District Judge Kathleen Williams issued a temporary restraining order blocking the construction of additional paving, tall lighting, filling, excavating or fencing at the camp. The new suit would seek operations be halted as well.
Experts claimed at the hearing then that further construction at the center could be detrimental to the area, driving away wildlife and adding possible carcinogens.
Plaintiffs also argued 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 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 filed by the Miccosukee triube.
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.
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