Page 10 - AHATA

A4 U.S. NEWS
Wednesday 16 July 2025

The Miccosukee Tribe of Florida

wants to join a federal lawsuit against

‘Alligator Alcatraz’

A patient prepares to take the first of two combination pills,
mifepristone, for a medication abortion during a visit to a
clinic in Kansas City, Kan., Oct. 12, 2022.
Associated Press

U.S. appeals court

upholds West Virginia

restriction on abortion

pill sales

By JOHN RABY
Associated Press
Work progresses on a new migrant detention facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” at Dade-Collier CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A federal appeals court on
Training and Transition facility in the Florida Everglades, Friday, July 4, 2025, in Ochopee, Fla. Tuesday upheld a lower court’s decision to restrict abor-
Associated Press tion pill sales in West Virginia.
A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Ap-
By KATE PAYNE area now known as the Preserve is a core peals in Richmond, Virginia, affirmed a ruling by a U.S.
Associated Press/Report for America piece of the Tribe’s homeland. Today, all district judge in 2023 despite federal regulators’ approv-
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Miccosu- of the Tribe’s active ceremonial sites and al of the abortion pill as a safe and effective medica-
kee Tribe of Indians of Florida is seeking a significant majority of the Tribe’s tradi- tion.
to join a federal lawsuit aimed at halting tional villages (sometimes known as “clan Most Republican-controlled states have enacted or ad-
the construction and operation of a new camps”) are within the Preserve,” the filing opted abortion bans of some kind, including restricting
immigration detention facility in the Ev- reads. To DeSantis and other state officials, abortion pills by default, since the U.S. Supreme Court
erglades, which tribal members consider locating the facility in the rugged and in 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that
their sacred ancestral homelands. remote Everglades is meant as a deter- provided nationwide access to abortion. All have been
Miccosukee leaders had already con- rent, a national model for how to get im- challenged in court. The Supreme Court ruled in the
demned the makeshift compound of trail- migrants to “self-deport.” The Republican case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organiza-
ers and tents that rose out of the swamp in Party of Florida has taken to fundraising tion.
a matter of days. But the filing Monday of off the detention center, selling branded U.S. District Court Judge Robert C. Chambers had ruled
a motion to intervene in the case initially T-shirts and beer koozies emblazoned with that the near-total abortion ban signed by then-Repub-
brought by environmental groups signals a the facility’s name. Officials have touted lican Gov. Jim Justice in September 2022 took prece-
new level of opposition by the tribe, which the harshness of the area, saying there’s dence over approvals from the U.S. Food and Drug Ad-
is also a major political donor in the state. “not much” there other than the wildlife ministration.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ adminis- who call it home. In fact, the Miccosukee “For us to once again federalize the issue of abortion
tration rapidly built the facility, which state have lived on those lands for centuries, without a clear directive from Congress, right on the
officials have dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” the tribe’s attorneys wrote in their motion, heels of Dobbs, would leave us one small step short of
on an isolated, county-owned airstrip in- which notes that there are 10 tribal villages defiance,” 4th Circuit Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote
side the Big Cypress National Preserve, within a three-mile (4.8-kilometer) radius of for the court.
about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of the detention center, one of which is ap- “One can of course agree or disagree with the Dobbs
downtown Miami. The Miccosukee have proximately 1,000 feet (304 meters) from decision. But that is not the point,” Wilkinson said. “At a
lived on and cared for the lands of Big Cy- the facility. time when the rule of law is under blunt assault, disre-
press “since time immemorial,” the filing The preserve is a place where tribal mem- garding the Supreme Court is not an option.”
reads, noting that the tribe played an inte- bers continue to hunt, trap and fish, as well West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey, who took office in
gral role in pushing for the creation of the as catch the school bus, hold sacred ritu- January, had defended challenges to the abortion law
national preserve, the country’s first. “The als and bury their loved ones. q when he served as attorney general.q