Immigration

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.

Florida may be forced to choose between forgoing federal reimbursement for the immigrant detention center or facing an environmental review that would risk shutting down the facility.

The legal rights lawsuit claims detainees have been denied the right to meet privately with their attorneys.

Across the country, tens of thousands of college students without legal status are losing access to in-state tuition as part of an immigration crackdown carried out by President Donald Trump and his allies.

State and federal officials asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to issue a stay of a preliminary injunction. If granted, a state filing in another lawsuit indicated plans to again ramp up operations.

Governor Ron DeSantis said during a Tuesday press conference he is in talks with law enforcement in Panama City about opening a third immigration detention facility there.

Then-Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody filed the lawsuit in September 2021 as she and Gov. Ron DeSantis made a high-profile issue of criticizing the Biden administration's handling of immigration issues.

A top Florida official says the controversial state-run immigration detention facility in the Everglades will likely be empty in a matter of days, even as Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration fights a federal judge's order to shutter the facility dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" by a late October deadline.

The Republican attorneys general echoed arguments by Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration and President Donald Trump's administration that the National Environmental Policy Act does not apply to the detention center.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and Governor Ron DeSantis have been raising alarms about the issue after an undocumented truck driver caused a fatal collision in the state earlier this month that killed three people.