Calling government efforts “wholly inadequate,” attorneys representing people held at an immigrant-detention center in the Everglades are asking a federal judge to force state and federal officials to allow adequate legal representation at the facility.
The detainees’ attorneys on Thursday filed an amended complaint in a potential class-action lawsuit alleging that officials at the facility are out of compliance with federal immigration-detention standards requiring confidential legal phone calls and correspondence and allowing unannounced lawyer visits.
The detainees’ attorneys also asked U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell for a preliminary injunction ordering state and federal officials to provide “timely, confidential and meaningful attorney-client communication” for people held at the facility.
The documents were the latest salvo in multi-pronged legal battles over the immigrant-detention complex dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” by Gov. Ron DeSantis and state officials.
The clash over legal representation came after a three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week blocked a judge’s ruling that required the wind-down of the detention center. In that case, which is separate from the legal-representation lawsuit, environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe allege officials failed to comply with a federal law requiring an environmental-impact study before the Everglades facility was constructed.
With officials continuing to send people to the remote facility, the dispute over legal representation continues to swirl.
Lawyers at times have faced weeks-long delays trying to schedule visits with immigrants held at the facility, and detainees with legal representation have been relocated with little notice in advance of prearranged meetings, according to the documents filed Thursday.
“Defendants have engaged in a pattern and practice of transferring detainees whose attorneys have requested in-person legal visits immediately prior to the scheduled visits, precluding their ability to meet with counsel at the facility. Defendants have also delayed scheduling in-person visits to such an extent that some detainees never have the chance to meet with their attorneys during their detention at the facility,” detainees’ attorneys wrote.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, Americans for Immigrant Justice and immigration attorneys filed the lawsuit in July, alleging First Amendment and due-process violations at the facility, which began accepting detainees on July 3.
During a hearing last month, attorneys for DeSantis attributed problems with legal access to the speed with which the facility was constructed and said the state had made strides in ensuring detainees could meet confidentially with their lawyers and had set up a process for legal documents to be exchanged.
But the filings Thursday by detainees’ attorneys contended the problems are ongoing.
State and federal officials’ “last-minute measures … are wholly inadequate” and violate detainees’ First Amendment rights, a motion for a preliminary injunction said.
“The government continues to impose significant barriers to attorney access for detainees held at Alligator Alcatraz, in violation of constitutional requirements,” detainees’ attorneys argued.
Access to legal representation at the detention center is “dramatically more restrictive than at other immigration facilities and runs afoul of the requirements that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has in place” for other facilities, the attorneys wrote.
While in-person meetings are available, attorneys must submit requests for meetings three business days in advance to visit clients in person, the lawyers argued.
“This requirement is far from the norm for other immigration detention facilities, jails, and prisons, which allow attorneys and legal representatives to conduct in-person visits during visitation hours without prior schedule with the facility. This requirement has rendered in-person attorney visits unavailable to many detainees at the facility,” the motion said.
In addition, video conferences aren’t confidential, officials haven’t set up a way for attorneys and detainees to confidentially exchange written documents and the facility does not have a legal mail system, the motion said.
Also, officials have not publicly posted any information regarding attorney-access protocols, “leaving attorneys and detainees in the dark about how to properly communicate with each other,” the motion said.
The attorneys for detainees also alleged that security workers at the facility are “pressuring desperate detainees to sign voluntary removal orders, without the opportunity to speak to counsel.”
In other filings this week, lawyers responded to a question from Chappell about the need for a visit to the remote site. Attorneys for detainees recommend a site visit, while lawyers representing the DeSantis and Trump administrations said such a visit was unnecessary.
Florida launched the Everglades facility as part of Republican state officials’ efforts to aid President Donald Trump’s mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.
State and federal officials maintain that many of the people being targeted for detention and deportation are criminals.
But the three plaintiffs in the lawsuit, identified by initials because of fear of retribution in their home countries or from federal authorities, had no previous criminal histories before their recent arrests, according to the legal complaint.
In addition to the lawsuit over legal representation and the case about an environmental review, the detention center also is the subject of another legal challenge by immigration attorneys who allege that the state lacks the authority to operate the facility.
Amid legal wrangling over “Alligator Alcatraz,” state officials last week began accepting detainees at a repurposed prison in Baker County. The facility west of Jacksonville can house up to 1,500 people, according to state officials.