MIAMI — Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity have filed suit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Florida Division of Emergency Management, and Miami-Dade County to protect the Florida Everglades from aplan to create a massive detention center to confine people who are rounded up in immigration raids.
“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,” said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades. "This scheme is not only cruel, it threatens the Everglades ecosystem that state and federal taxpayers have spent billions to protect. 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.”
The proposed plan has not undergone an environmental review as required under federal law, and the public has had no opportunity to comment. Despite that, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has rushed ahead with retrofitting the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, roughly two hours west of Miami, in hopes of imprisoning up to 5,000 people there who Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies detain.
“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.”
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RRICH69176
I applaud your efforts........I feel the folks in power do not follow the rule of the law...we need folks like you to push back. Thank you
Sunday, July 6 Report this
graumli22
Lost in this article is the fact that an airport, on which the detention center is erected, was the previous "blight" on this ground! It's disingenuous to state how the detention center facility is causing eco issues in the Everglades when an entire airport with runways was already there. Smh.
Sunday, July 6 Report this
Cat L
In response to graumli22, an airport that is shut down does not add sewage to the surrounding area, but people do. Traffic endangers animals and adds exhaust and petrochemicals.
Sunday, July 6 Report this
Cat L
So now I look at the reports about desantis having been involved with the torture at Guantanamo, and those reports become more believable. He sure jumped on the "build an internment camp" idea quickly.
And since we have photographs of concentration camps from WWII, we can see the similarity.
Sunday, July 6 Report this