The federal prison on Alcatraz Island operated for 29 years before it was shut down in 1963. Its namesake in Florida might not make it to 29 weeks. In a ruling late Thursday, a federal judge in Miami gave Florida 60 days to clear out the immigration detention facility in the Everglades, the Washington Post reports. Judge Kathleen M. Williams ordered a halt to new construction and said no new detainees can be moved there while operations are being wound down, reports the New York Times. Her order requires much of the site to be dismantled. Florida immediately filed a notice of appeal.
The ruling came in response to a lawsuit from environmentalists and the Miccosukee Tribe, who said the state and federal governments had failed to carry out an environmental review required by federal law. Williams said the facility was causing severe damage to the Everglades, noting that plans to build a huge airport at the site in the 1960s were abandoned because of environmental concerns, the Guardian reports. "Since that time, every Florida governor, every Florida senator, and countless local and national political figures, including presidents, have publicly pledged their unequivocal support for the restoration, conservation, and protection of the Everglades," she wrote. "This order does nothing more than uphold the basic requirements of legislation designed to fulfill those promises."
Williams—who suspended construction at the site in a preliminary order two weeks ago—said it wasn't clear why authorities chose to open the facility in the Everglades, the AP reports. "What is apparent, however, is that in their haste to construct the detention camp, the State did not consider alternative locations," she wrote. In court, environmentalists presented evidence that more than 20 acres of wetlands had been paved over since the first tents went up at the site two months ago, the Post reports.
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