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ORLANDO, Fla. — <\/span>Environmental groups say that the timing of the expected closure of an immigration detention center in the middle of the Florida Everglades, likely in the next month or two, is no accident because it will come as their lawsuit<\/a> challenging its existence returns to a federal judge who had previously ordered it shut down.<\/p>\n A federal appellate court decided last month<\/a> to keep open the detention center nicknamed \u201cAlligator Alcatraz<\/a>,” for the time being, blocking a lower court decision ordering it to wind down operations. But the case was sent back to the lower court judge who now gets jurisdiction over the lawsuit as the litigation over the facility’s fate continues.<\/p>\n \u201cKnowing that the same district judge who previously enjoined the operation would soon reassume oversight — the defendants are now effectively waving the white flag,\u201d said Paul Schwiep, an attorney for the environmental groups that had sued, saying the facility’s construction hadn’t undergone a required environmental review.<\/p>\n When asked about the future of the state-run facility and its costs on Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said that he hadn’t gotten any \u201cofficial word\u201d that federal authorities are going to stop sending detainees to the detention center.<\/p>\n But vendors who supply and help run the facility have been told that the closure could be as soon as next month, according to reports Tuesday by The New York Times and CBS News Miami. The Florida Department of Emergency Management, which operates the detention center, didn’t respond to an emailed inquiry on Wednesday. The Republican governor’s press secretary, Molly Best, referred questions about the facility to the state emergency management agency.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t build any permanent facilities down there because we knew it was going to be temporary,\u201d DeSantis said Wednesday at a news conference in Titusville, Florida.<\/p>\n DeSantis’ administration opened the facility last July to support the immigration crackdown by the administration of President Donald Trump, who visited the detention center last summer. An attorney for two detainees has accused guards<\/a> of severely beating and pepper-spraying detainees. Other detainees have said<\/a> worms turn up in the food, toilets don\u2019t flush and mosquitoes and other insects are everywhere.<\/p>\n \u201cThis monument to cruelty, waste and environmental and tribal lands abuse should have never been built,\u201d U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat from Florida, said Tuesday.<\/p>\n Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity sued state and federal officials a short time after the facility opened, claiming the remote airstrip site in the Everglades wasn\u2019t given a proper environmental review required by federal law before it was converted into an immigration detention center. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams in Miami agreed and ordered in August<\/a> that the facility must wind down operations within two months.<\/p>\n The appellate court blocked the order, saying the Florida-run facility wasn\u2019t under federal control and didn\u2019t need to comply with federal law requiring an environmental impact review.<\/p>\n But the appellate court made clear that once Florida got federal reimbursement for the facility, it would have to comply with the federal environmental law, Schwiep said.<\/p>\n DeSantis said Tuesday that the state expected to be reimbursed by the federal government for $608 million, which has already been approved by FEMA.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no negotiations on that,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Follow Mike Schneider on the social platform Bluesky: @mikeysid.bsky.social<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n