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<\/p>\n Email Link<\/p>\n Orlando \n Florida could be on the hook for $218 million the state spent to convert a remote training airport in the Everglades into an immigration detention center dubbed \u201cAlligator Alcatraz.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The center may soon be completely empty <\/a>as a judge upheld her decision late Wednesday ordering operations to wind down indefinitely.\n <\/p>\n \n Shutting down the facility for the time being would cost the state $15 million to $20 million immediately, and it would cost another $15 million to $20 million to reinstall structures if Florida is allowed to reopen it, according to court filings by the state.\n <\/p>\n \n The Florida Division of Emergency Management will lose most of the value of the $218 million it has invested in making the airport suitable for a detention center, a state official said in court papers.\n <\/p>\n \n Built in just a few days, the facility consists of chain-link cages surrounding large white tents filled with rows of bunk beds.\n <\/p>\n \n An Associated Press analysis of publicly available state spending data showed that Florida has signed at least $405 million in vendor contracts to build and operate the facility, which officials had initially estimated would cost $450 million a year to run. A previous AP review found that as of late July, the state had already allocated at least $245 million<\/a> to run the site, which opened July 1.\n <\/p>\n \n President Donald Trump<\/a> toured the facility last month and suggested it could be a model for future lockups nationwide as his administration races to expand the infrastructure<\/a> needed to increase deportations.\n <\/p>\n \n The center has been plagued by reports of unsanitary conditions<\/a> and detainees being cut off from the legal system.\n <\/p>\n \n It\u2019s also facing several legal challenges, including one that US District Judge Kathleen Williams ruled on late Wednesday.\n <\/p>\n \n She denied requests to pause her order<\/a> to wind down operations, after agreeing last week with environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe that the state and federal defendants didn\u2019t follow federal law requiring an environmental review for the detention center in the middle of sensitive wetlands<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n The Miami judge said the number of detainees was already dwindling and that the federal government\u2019s \u201cimmigration enforcement goals will not be thwarted by a pause in operations.\u201d That\u2019s despite Department of Homeland Security lawyers saying the judge\u2019s order would disrupt that enforcement.\n <\/p>\n \n When asked, the Department of Homeland Security wouldn\u2019t say how many detainees remained and how many had been moved out since the judge\u2019s temporary injunction last week.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cDHS is complying with this order and moving detainees to other facilities,\u201d the department said Thursday in an emailed statement.\n <\/p>\n \n Environmental activist Jessica Namath, who has kept a nearly constant watch outside the facility\u2019s gates, said Thursday that fellow observers had seen metal framing for tents hauled out but no signs of the removal of FEMA trailers or portable bathrooms.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt definitely seems like they have been winding down operations,\u201d Namath said.\n <\/p>\n \n Based on publicly available contract data, The Associated Press estimated the state allocated $50 million for the bathrooms. Detainees and advocates have described toilets that don\u2019t flush, flooding floors with fecal waste, although officials dispute such descriptions.\n <\/p>\n \n The facility was already being emptied of detainees as of last week, according to an email exchange<\/a> shared with The Associated Press on Wednesday. The executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, Kevin Guthrie<\/a>, said on Aug. 22 \u201cwe are probably going to be down to 0 individuals within a few days,\u201d in a message to a rabbi about chaplaincy services.\n <\/p>\n \n Funding is central to the federal government\u2019s arguments that Williams\u2019 order should be overturned by an appellate court.\n <\/p>\n \n Homeland Security attorneys said in a court filing this week that federal environmental law doesn\u2019t apply to a state like Florida, and the federal government isn\u2019t responsible for the detention center since it hasn\u2019t spent a cent to build or operate the facility, even though Florida is seeking some federal grant money to fund a portion of the detention center.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cNo final federal funding decisions have been made,\u201d the attorneys said.\n <\/p>\n \n Almost two dozen Republican-led states also urged the appellate court to overturn the order. The 22 states argued in another court filing that the judge overstepped her authority and that the federal environmental laws only applied to the federal agencies, not the state of Florida.\n <\/p>\n
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