The headline from the U.K. Daily Mail seems a big overwrought,
Trump’s Alligator Alcatraz hit with major setback as Obama-appointed judge moves to HALT construction.
First of all, the facility holding illegal immigrants in the middle of the Florida Everglades has been up and running since last month, so I’m not sure what construction, if any, is still ongoing at the facility.
As for “major,” the construction pause is scheduled to last only two weeks. Operations at the facility will continue, unimpeded.
The circumstances are this: a varied group of plaintiffs are seeking to shut down the facility for, of all things, environmental reasons.
The detention facility was built at the site of a little-used airport located in the middle of the swamp. Decades ago, there were big plans to build the world’s largest airport on the site. It didn’t happen as only one runway was ever built. But the site includes some 25,000 surrounding acres of swampland. It has been in use as an airport since the 1970’s.
For context, the airport sits inside the Big Cypress National Preserve, which includes some 750,000 acres. Next door is the Everglades National Park, with double the acreage at 1.5 million.
The contention is that an already existing, half-century-old facility, temporarily housing a few thousand illegal aliens on their way out, is going to destroy the surrounding ecosystem, 90 times its size.
Of course, the Democrat District Judge, Kathleen Williams, didn’t bother hearing the government’s side of the story before issuing her ruling. Why bother?
In the meantime, I wish the current residents good luck and bon voyage.
