Weekly Roundup: Pause in Paving … For Now

By Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida

TALLAHASSEE — As the state House moved forward this week with a rare mid-decade look at drawing new congressional maps, a federal judge put a temporary hold on construction at Alligator Alcatraz.

Attorneys in the lawsuit over the detention center will now focus on whether construction of the remote facility in the Everglades — part of the state’s effort to support President Donald Trump’s mass deportation of undocumented immigrants — violated environmental law.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams on Thursday put a two-week hold on additional construction at the detention complex, which was erected adjacent to a remote airstrip known as the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport.

But Gov. Ron DeSantis quickly emphasized that, despite William’s ruling, the detention and expulsion of undocumented immigrants remained uninterrupted.

“Operations at Alligator Alcatraz are ongoing and deportations are continuing,” DeSantis posted on the platform X, hours after Williams’ ruling.

Attorney General James Uthmeier on Friday reiterated that Alligator Alcatraz “continues to be operational, detaining and deporting,” adding in a post on X that the judge’s order “was nevertheless wrong and will be appealed.”

The lawsuit, filed by Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, alleges that state and federal officials did not comply with a law requiring that an environmental-impact study be performed before developing the facility, which has a capacity of 3,000 people and could be built out to house up to 4,000 detainees. The Miccosukee Tribe also is a plaintiff in the case.

New pavement, fencing, and housing have been added to the site, which would not have been chosen if the requisite study had been performed, according to Tania Galloni, an attorney with the environmental law firm Earthjustice.

“You don’t put 5,000 people, for any reason, in the middle of the Everglades,” Galloni, whose group is among those representing plaintiffs in the case, told The News Service of Florida on Friday. “It’s not wise. It’s not environmentally appropriate. It causes all sorts of harm to ecosystems that all Floridians care about.”

Talbert Cypress, chairman of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, praised the order pausing construction on what he called a “deeply concerning project” adjacent to some of the tribe’s villages in the Big Cypress National Preserve.

“While this order is temporary, it is an important step in asserting our rights and protecting our homeland,” Cypress said in a statement.

RED, RED LINES

As Republicans seek to keep control of Congress in 2026, Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, moved Thursday to set up a select committee to look into redrawing Florida’s already GOP-heavy congressional districts.

Perez said the select committee is a response to a July 17 decision by the Florida Supreme Court that upheld a congressional map DeSantis pushed through the Legislature in 2022. Opponents argued the map violated a 2010 “Fair Districts” constitutional amendment that set standards for redistricting.

In a memo to state House members, Perez said the committee would review the “applicability and interpretation of certain provisions of the so-called ‘Fair Districts’ provisions of the Florida Constitution and their intersection with federal law.”

“Exploring these questions now, at the mid-decade point, would potentially allow us to seek legal guidance from our Supreme Court without the uncertainty associated with deferring those questions until after the next decennial census and reapportionment,” Perez said in the memo.

Redistricting typically happens once a decade after the U.S. census. The last round of redistricting happened in 2022.

The Supreme Court ruling last month centered on North Florida’s Congressional District 5, which in the past stretched from Jacksonville to west of Tallahassee and elected Black Democrat Al Lawson.

The Supreme Court case involved the interplay of the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause and the state Fair Districts standards, which include prohibiting drawing districts that would “diminish” the ability of minorities to “elect representatives of their choice” — often called a “non-diminishment” requirement.

“Trump and Congressional Republicans know they’re on track to lose the House in 2026,” U.S. Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, a Democrat from Orlando, said in a release. “They just voted to strip food and health care from working families to bankroll tax cuts for their billionaire donors — and they know they can’t defend that at the ballot box.”

Texas Republicans have already moved forward with a controversial mid-decade redistricting plan and other GOP-controlled states may follow suit. Meanwhile, leaders of Democratic-controlled states, such as California, Illinois and New York, have weighed possibly redrawing districts to help Democrats.

FROM THE CAPITOL TO CAMPUS

Wildwood Republican state Rep. John Temple was announced as one of three finalists to become president of Lake-Sumter State College.

Potentially the latest in a series of former legislators and allies of Gov. Ron DeSantis to be tapped to lead a state college or university, Temple has been in the House since 2022.

Temple, who currently works as vice president of workforce programs at Lake-Sumter, was one of a small group of Republican lawmakers who early this year was allied with DeSantis as the governor battled with House and Senate leaders over immigration-enforcement legislation. When DeSantis signed the legislation in his office, Temple was one of six lawmakers in attendance.

The college’s Board of Trustees is expected to make a final selection on Aug. 28.

Meanwhile, former state Rep. Bobby Payne, a Palatka Republican who left the House last year because of term limits, has applied for one of two open seats on the state Public Service Commission.

Commissioners Art Graham and Andrew Fay were not among 16 people who applied before a Monday deadline for two seats on the panel. The terms for Graham and Fay expire in January.

Payne, who worked from 1981 to 2019 for Seminole Electric Cooperative, was heavily involved in utility issues while in the Legislature.

In 2024, Payne sponsored a wide-ranging energy bill (HB 1645) that included eliminating parts of state law about reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. It also barred offshore wind-energy generation.

STORY OF THE WEEK: Joining efforts in other Republican-controlled states, the Florida House advanced a rare mid-decade plan to redraw congressional districts.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “It’s a relief that the court has stepped in to protect the Everglades’ sensitive waters, starry skies and vulnerable creatures from further harm while we continue our case. We’re ready to press forward and put a stop to this despicable plan for good.” — Elise Bennett, an attorney and Florida and Caribbean director for the Center for Biological Diversity.