BREAKING NEWS
IN FOCUS
Lawsuit Filed to Protect Everglades From Becoming I.C.E Detention Center
MIAMI— Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity today sued in U.S. District Court to protect the Florida Everglades from a reckless plan to create a massive detention center to confine people who are rounded up in immigration raids.
The groups are suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Florida Division of Emergency Management, and Miami-Dade County. Friends of the Everglades is represented by Earthjustice and Scott Hiaasen and Paul Schwiep.
“The site is more than 96% wetlands, surrounded by Big Cypress National Preserve, and is habitat for the endangered Florida panther and other iconic species. This scheme is not only cruel, it threatens the Everglades ecosystem that state and federal taxpayers have spent billions to protect,” said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades. “Friends of the Everglades was founded by Marjory Stoneman Douglas in 1969 to stop harmful development at this very location. Fifty-six years later, the threat has returned — and it poses another existential threat to the Everglades.”
Read more.Media Contacts:
Media director: Patrick Sullivan, [email protected], (510) 844-7116
Climate: Nyshie Perkinson, Media Specialist – [email protected], (718) 928-5148
Endangered species, carnivore conservation: Aaron Kunkler, Media Specialist – [email protected], (206) 949-5353
Energy justice: Mary K. Reinhart, Deputy Media Director – [email protected], (602) 320-7309
Oceans, international wildlife, and Alaska: Natalie Jones, Media Specialist – [email protected], (510) 418-0179
Pesticides, toxics, air pollution, industrial agriculture and environmental health: Andy Parker, Media Specialist – [email protected], (503) 310-5569
Population and sustainability: Kim Dinan, Media Specialist – [email protected], (513) 535-1306
Public Lands, national monuments: Mary K. Reinhart, Deputy Director of the Media Program – [email protected], (602) 320-7309
Southwest, borderlands, New Mexico, Southern Rockies, Northern Rockies and Great Basin: Vanessa Barchfield, Senior Media Specialist – [email protected], (520) 867-6686
Urban wildlands, government affairs: Wendy Leung, Senior Media Specialist – [email protected], (818) 625-3128
Media photos: Patrick Sullivan, Media Director, [email protected], (510) 844-7116