Appeals court stops order to wind down operations at 'Alligator Alcatraz'

A federal appeals court panel on Thursday put on hold a lower court judge's order to wind down operations of the immigration detention centre in the Florida Everglades dubbed Alligator Alcatraz".

The three-judge panel in Atlanta decided by a 2-1 vote to stay the federal judge's order pending the outcome of an appeal, saying it was in the public interest.

US District Judge Kathleen Williams in Miami issued a preliminary injunction last month ordering operations at the facility to be wound down by the end of October, with detainees transferred to other facilities and equipment and fencing removed.

Republican Governor Ron DeSantis' administration in late June raced to build the facility on an isolated airstrip surrounded by wetlands to aid President Donald Trump's efforts to deport people in the US illegally.

The governor said the location in the rugged and remote Everglades was meant as a deterrent against escape, much like the island prison in California that Republicans named it after.

Thursday's courtroom meeting was also the first hearing since the legal rights case was transferred from Miami to Fort Myers, with one of the counts tossed out.

US District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz in Miami last month said the claim that detainees were denied hearings in immigration court was rendered moot when the Trump administration designated the Krome North Processing Centre near Miami as a site for their cases to be heard.

Ruiz also ordered the rest of the case to be heard in Florida's middle district, granting the state defendants a change of venue motion.

The remaining counts address allegations of delays in scheduling meetings between detainees and their attorneys and an inability for the detainees to talk privately with their attorneys by phone or videoconference at the facility, whose official name is the South Detention Facility.

Attorneys for the detainees argued in court papers filed Tuesday that the preliminary injunction in the environmental case has no impact on their case since the detention centre continues to house detainees.