Florida officials failed to disclose that they had applied for federal reimbursement for an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” leading to a false impression before an appellate court panel that put on hold a judge's order to wind down operations at the facility, according to a lawsuit filed Monday.

The public records lawsuit was filed in state court in Tallahassee by the Friends of the Everglades, which along with another environmental group and the Miccosukee Tribe, sued federal and state agencies, alleging they didn’t follow federal law requiring an environmental review for the detention center in the middle of sensitive wetlands.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams agreed and ordered in August that the facility needed to wind down ope

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