After weeks of complaints from detainees at “Alligator Alcatraz” that they lack access to their attorneys, a federal judge in Miami will consider whether noncitizens housed at the temporary migrant detention center are being deprived of their due process rights.
At a hearing Monday, a group of detainees at the facility is asking U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz, a Trump appointee, to issue an order that would require the state of Florida and the Trump administration to expand legal access at the controversial facility.
“This is an unprecedented situation where hundreds of detainees are held incommunicado, with no ability to access the courts, under legal authority that has never been explained and may not exist,” they wrote in their motion.
MORE: ‘It’s like you’re dead alive’: Families, advocates allege inhumane conditions at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’
Their lawyers have argued that the detainees lack a standard way to communicate with their attorneys, resorting to using a recorded pay phone to contact their lawyers in five-minute intervals.
They also argue that detainees are being held without any formal criminal or immigration charges against them, making it challenging, if not impossible, for them to seek release on bond.
“Immigrant detainees held at Alligator Alcatraz also have been effectively barred from obtaining relief from federal immigration courts, including release from detention on bond,” they argued in court filings.
Attorneys with the state of Florida and the Trump administration acknowledge that the facility ran into issues facilitating attorney-client communications when “Alligator Alcatraz” opened last month, because of what they called “initial delays caused by the inherent logistical struggles of standing up a temporary detention center to house thousands of detainees.”
However, they argue that officials have set up a consistent way for detainees to contact their lawyers using a private contractor, nullifying the need for a preliminary injunction.
“Plaintiffs offer no evidence to suggest the State Defendants will stop scheduling meetings with counsel without an injunction. Accordingly, the Court should deny Plaintiffs’ Renewed Motion for Preliminary Injunction,” they wrote in a legal filing.
While the plaintiffs also argued that the facility exists in a legal “black hole” with no clearly defined immigration court to challenge their detentions, the Trump administration recently designated the Krome North Service Processing Center near Miami as the immigration court with responsibility for “Alligator Alcatraz.”
This is the second major lawsuit challenging the operation of “Alligator Alcatraz,” as another federal judge is considering blocking the use of the facility over environmental concerns.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams, after a multi-day hearing earlier this month, issued a temporary restraining order blocking further construction at the facility, and is now considering a broader order barring use of the facility.
