Groups Sue to Protect Everglades from Reckless Detention Center

Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity sued today in U.S. District Court to protect the Florida Everglades from a reckless plan for a massive detention center to confine people who are rounded up in immigration raids.

The suit was filed against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Florida Division of Emergency Management, and Miami-Dade County. Friends of the Everglades is represented by Earthjustice and attorneys Scott Hiaasen and Paul Schwiep.

As the lawsuit points out, the plan has gone through no environmental review as required under federal law, and the public has had no opportunity to comment. Despite that, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has plowed ahead with developing the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, roughly two hours west of Miami, and one hour east of Naples, in hopes of detaining up to 5,000 people there.

“The site is more than 96% wetlands, surrounded by Big Cypress National Preserve, and is habitat for the endangered Florida panther and other iconic species. This scheme is not only cruel, it threatens the Everglades ecosystem that state and federal taxpayers have spent billions to protect,” said Eve Samples, Executive Director of Friends of the Everglades. “Friends of the Everglades was founded by Marjory Stoneman Douglas in 1969 to stop harmful development at this very location. Fifty-six years later, the threat has returned — and it poses another existential threat to the Everglades.”

“This massive detention center will blight one of the most iconic ecosystems in the world,” said Elise Bennett, Florida and Caribbean director and attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “This reckless attack on the Everglades — the lifeblood of Florida — risks polluting sensitive waters and turning more endangered Florida panthers into roadkill. It makes no sense to build what’s essentially a new development in the Everglades for any reason, but this reason is particularly despicable.”

The Everglades is the largest mangrove ecosystem in the Western Hemisphere, the largest continuous stand of sawgrass prairie and the most significant breeding ground for wading birds in North America. In 2010, it was designated as an endangered UNESCO World Heritage site.

“This plan has had none of the environmental review that’s required by federal law,” said Tania Galloni, Managing Attorney for the Florida office of Earthjustice. “Cruelty aside, it defies common sense to put a mass of people, vehicles, and development in one of the most significant wetlands in the world. That’s why we’re going to court.”