A federal court order requires the Florida Everglades immigration detention center to continue winding down operations and close by late October. The facility has been linked to unsanitary conditions and restricted access to legal services for detainees. Detainee numbers were already decreasing, and state officials indicated the population could drop to zero soon. The site was rapidly constructed two months earlier at a little-used training airport, with chain-link cages and white tents housing bunk beds. State contracts exceeded $245 million. Federal attorneys warned the shutdown could hinder enforcement, but the court found enforcement goals would not be thwarted.
An immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades dubbed " Alligator Alcatraz " must keep moving toward shutting down operations by late October, a judge has ruled, even as the state and federal governments fight that decision. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams late Wednesday denied requests to pause her order to wind down operations at the facility, which has been plagued by reports of unsanitary conditions and detainees being cut off from the legal system.
The detention center was quickly built two months ago at a little-used training airport, where chain-link cages now surround large white tents filled with rows of bunk beds. State officials signed more than $245 million in contracts for building and operating the facility, which officially opened July 1. President Donald Trump toured the facility last month and suggested it could be a model for future lockups nationwide as his administration races to expand the infrastructure needed to increase deportations.
Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in their request for a stay that Williams' order last week, if carried out, would disrupt the federal government's ability to enforce immigration laws. But the judge in Wednesday night's order noted that the detainee population already was dwindling at the facility, and that the federal government's "immigration enforcement goals will not be thwarted by a pause in operations."
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