“`html
A federal appeals court has reversed a previous legal injunction that mandated Florida and the Trump administration to close the Alligator Alcatraz immigration detention center, effectively allowing the facility to remain operational.
In a 2-1 decision, the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit granted a request from the state of Florida and the Department of Homeland Security to stay a lower court’s injunction while the underlying lawsuit proceeds.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis stated, “Alligator Alcatraz is, in fact, as we have consistently maintained, open for business.”
Last month, US District Judge Kathleen Williams ordered the cessation of the facility’s expansion and the commencement of its dismantling within a 60-day timeframe.
Judge Williams, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, sided with environmental advocacy groups and a Native American tribe, who argued that the facility should have been subjected to federal environmental impact assessments.
In compliance with the initial court order, the Department of Homeland Security had begun transferring detainees out of the Everglades location late last month.
However, on Thursday, the appellate court concluded that state and federal officials were likely to demonstrate that the facility was not governed by the National Environmental Policy Act.
The majority ruling was authored by two judges appointed by President Trump. An Obama-appointed judge dissented.
The Department of Homeland Security characterized the appellate ruling as “a victory for the American people, the rule of law, and common sense.”
The department asserted in a post on X, “This lawsuit was never about the environmental impacts of converting a developed airport into a detention facility.”
“It has been and will continue to be about open-borders activists and judges attempting to prevent law enforcement from removing dangerous criminal aliens from our communities, period.”
Florida’s Republican governor also expressed approval of the decision.
DeSantis commented, “Some leftist judge ruled implausibly that somehow Florida wasn’t allowed to utilize our own property for this important mission because they didn’t conduct an environmental impact statement.”
Friends of the Everglades and other plaintiffs involved in the environmental lawsuit have yet to issue a statement.
The health secretary clashed with lawmakers as they accused him of restricting Americans’ access to vaccines.
Melania Trump has taken a different – and selective – approach to her duties in the White House.
Ladapo announced this week that Florida would seek to end all mandates, including those for schoolchildren
The US health secretary faced questions on Covid deaths and vaccines a week after firing the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Trump has deployed hundreds of troops, some armed, as part of a crackdown on crime and homelessness in the US capital.
“`