Florida taxpayers could lose nearly all of the $218 million the state poured into its controversial Everglades detention center after a federal judge upheld her order shutting it down.

The facility, which has been dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” was quickly converted from a remote training airport into a sprawling detention complex. State officials opened it at the beginning of July as part of the Republican Party’s push to expand immigration enforcement and deportations.

But U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams ruled earlier this month that the state and federal government failed to follow environmental laws to protect the surrounding land, an order she upheld late on Wednesday.

“The project creates irreparable harm in the form of habitat loss and increased mortality to endangered specie

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