MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WDNews) – Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has filed an amicus brief supporting Florida in its legal battle to preserve the detention facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”
The 22-state brief, filed in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, asks the court to stay a federal judge’s preliminary injunction that would require Florida to dismantle the facility.
“Florida, and our law enforcement community, urgently need this critical detention facility to house the most dangerous illegal immigrants. In a shocking decision, a district court judge declared that states must comply with federal environmental reporting requirements that apply only to the federal government. Worse, the court ordered Florida to halt further construction of the facility and tear it down,” stated Attorney General Marshall. “But Congress did not give federal courts the authority to intrude on these issues of law and order. The States’ authority to ensure public safety must not be held hostage to judicial overreach.”
The brief argues the district court erred by applying federal environmental procedures to a project built on state land with state funding. The ruling required Florida to stop building and to remove fencing, lights, and generators already in place. Attorneys general contend the National Environmental Policy Act does not impose such obligations on states.
Alabama joined the Indiana-led brief alongside attorneys general from Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
