Federal judge Kathleen Williams ordered the closure of the Trump administration’s notorious “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration jail within 60 days, and said no more detainees were to be brought to the Florida facility, which is known for harsh conditions, illegal abuse of detainees and denial of due process, reports The Guardian:
In her 82-page order, published in the US district court’s southern district of Florida on Friday, Williams determined the facility was causing severe and irreparable damage to the fragile Florida Everglades.
She also noted that a plan to develop the site on which the jail was built into a massive tourist airport was rejected in the 1960s because of the harm it would have caused the the land and delicate ecosystem.
“Since that time, every Florida governor, every Florida senator, and countless local and national political figures, including presidents, have publicly pledged their unequivocal support for the restoration, conservation, and protection of the Everglades,” she wrote.
“This order does nothing more than uphold the basic requirements of legislation designed to fulfill those promises.”
…the ruling is a blow to the detention and deportation agenda of the Trump administration. The president touted the camp, which recently held as many as 1,400 detainees, as a jail for “some of the most vicious people on the planet”, although hundreds of those held there have no criminal record or active criminal proceedings against them.
(Source: The Guardian, Image: CBS Miami)