South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson has responded to a recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, which granted Florida’s request to keep its new detention facility for illegal immigrants—referred to as “Alligator Alcatraz”—open. The ruling stays a lower court order that would have required Florida to close the facility within 60 days.
“This is a major victory for common sense, the rule of law, and state sovereignty. The Eleventh Circuit recognized what we argued in our multistate brief, that federal environmental laws like NEPA cannot be twisted into political weapons by activists to stop states from protecting their citizens,” said Attorney General Wilson. “South Carolina stands with Florida and every other state who is on the front lines of the border crisis. States must have the ability to defend their communities and keep dangerous criminals off their streets.”
Earlier this year, Wilson joined 21 other states in submitting a friend-of-the-court brief urging reversal of the district court’s injunction against Florida’s facility. The Eleventh Circuit agreed with arguments made by these states, finding that NEPA is a procedural statute rather than an instrument for blocking lawful state projects, and determined that no federal action had occurred requiring its application.
The full text of the multistate brief can be accessed online, as well as the Eleventh Circuit’s decision.
