Overview
- Friends of the Everglades, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Miccosukee Tribe asked an Eleventh Circuit panel on Tuesday to lift its stay and revive a lower court’s wind‑down order for the Everglades detention site.
- The facility remains open because the appeals court paused the district judge’s August shutdown order in September, and the judges gave no timetable after the Miami hearing.
- Florida and federal lawyers said NEPA, which requires environmental review of federal actions, applies only if the project has federal funding and federal operational control.
- The challengers argued NEPA governs because Homeland Security authorized funding and immigration is a federal function that makes the site a federal action.
- FEMA approved $608 million to support the center, and a Justice Department lawyer said any reimbursement would be per detainee rather than for construction costs.