Trump’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ can stay open for now, US appeal court rules

A US appeal court ruled on Thursday that a Florida migrant detention centre known as “Alligator Alcatraz” can remain open for now.

A lower court judge had barred the Trump administration and Florida officials last month from bringing any new migrants to the facility and for much of the site to be dismantled, effectively shutting it down.

But a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday that the detention centre can remain open while a Trump administration appeal of the shutdown order is being heard.

Friends of the Everglades and the Centre for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit arguing that the facility threatens the sensitive Everglades wetlands ecosystem and was hastily built without the legally required environmental impact studies.

The centre was assembled in just eight days in June with bunk beds, wire cages and large white tents at an abandoned airfield in the Everglades, home to a large population of alligators.

Republican US President Donald Trump, who has vowed to deport millions of undocumented migrants, visited the detention site after its opening, boasting about the harsh conditions and joking that the reptilian predators will serve as guards.