VoteWater has joined a coalition of Florida conservation organizations asking a federal appeals court to affirm a lower court ruling that effectively shuts down “Alligator Alcatraz.”

Attorneys with The Jacobs Public Interest Law Clinic for Democracy and the Environment at Stetson University College of Law filed the Amicus Brief (“Friend-of-the-Court” brief) Tuesday evening on behalf of VoteWater, Tropical Audubon, the Florida Wildlife Federation, the Florida Keys Chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America, Sierra Club, University of Miami’s Environmental Justice Clinic, and The People’s Economic and Environmental Resiliency (PEER) Group.

The conservation groups oppose the state and federal government’s request for a stay pending appeal of U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Williams’ August ruling that “Alligator Alcatraz” skirted federal environmental laws, must halt operations and begin winding down within 60 days.

That case, which has been appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, was filed by Friends of the Everglades, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida. A key point of contention was the government’s failure to conduct a thorough environmental review and solicit public input, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), before building the detention center.

As VoteWater and the other groups note in the Amici briefing, “For Amici-Conservation Organizations, NEPA is crucial to their missions to protect the environment, and they consistently rely upon NEPA as a procedural safeguard to ensuring transparent, informed decision-making.”

“NEPA is a critical step and the government simply skipped it at Alligator Alcatraz,” said VoteWater Executive Director Gil Smart.

Smart cited VoteWater’s participation in the NEPA process during the development of the Lake Okeechobee System Operating Manual (LOSOM), where input from multiple stakeholders and a thorough environmental review resulted in a more equitable water management plan.

“If not for NEPA we might have had no say,” Smart said. “We relied on NEPA both for community engagement and for transparent, informed decision-making, and with LOSOM it helped protect not just the northern estuaries but the broader Everglades ecosystem.”

Plaintiffs in the Alligator Alcatraz case have documented 20 acres of new pavement at the former Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, along with other environmental impacts which Smart said might have been prevented had the detention center undergone a proper review.

Despite reports that the facility is in the process of being dismantled, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday it is still operating and deportations continue. A hearing in a separate case regarding the legal rights of detainees is set to be held Thursday.