South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced that the state has joined 21 others in filing a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. The action challenges a federal judge’s order that halted construction of Florida’s immigrant detention facility, referred to as “Alligator Alcatraz.”
Wilson criticized the ruling, describing it as an example of judicial overreach and arguing that the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was misapplied. He stated that NEPA is intended to govern federal agencies and should not apply to states constructing facilities on their own land using state funds.
“This has never been about protecting the environment; this is about activist judges trying to block states from enforcing immigration laws and carrying out President Trump’s mandate,” Wilson said. “Congress never gave unelected judges the power to use NEPA as a weapon against states. If they can stop Florida from building Alligator Alcatraz, they can stop any state from using its own state dollars to build prisons, schools, or public safety facilities. That’s not the rule of law; it’s the rule of partisan politics legislated from the bench.”
The brief includes support from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia and Wyoming.
