Two separate lawsuits could halt plans for “Alligator Alcatraz,” the controversial makeshift immigrant detention center in Florida’s swampy Everglades.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and President Donald Trump have touted the location of the facility, which can house 3,000 or more detainees. State officials say it’s situated between a large airport runway to ease deportation flights and wetlands teeming with alligators to help prevent escapes.
But Democratic lawmakers who toured the facility described the conditions as barbaric, with “wall-to-wall humans” “packed into cages.” Detainees reported worms in their food, toilets that don’t flush, floors flooded with fecal waste and mosquito infestations.
Now, a lawsuit over environmental concerns and another over detainees’ rights might stop operations at the facility – possibly leaving officials with the costly and logistically difficult task of rehousing the detainees elsewhere.
Major environmental concerns
“Alligator Alcatraz” is close to marshlands that serve as a crucial source of freshwater and drinking water for South Florida. Environmentalists are suing to stop the facility’s operations.
Friends of the Everglades – a nonprofit committed to preserving the Everglades and its interconnected ecosystems – and the Center for Biological Diversity asked a court to issue an injunction “to halt the unlawful construction of a mass federal detention facility for up to 5,000 noncitizen detainees,” the lawsuit states.
“Defending the Everglades in this legal case is critically important,” said Tania Galloni, the Earthjustice managing attorney for Florida, which represents some of the plaintiffs. “This is a public natural resource we all depend on, and transforming this site into a mass detention center is reckless, especially without any environmental review.”
Last week, US District Judge Kathleen Williams ordered a 14-day pause on additional construction at the site while witnesses testified at a hearing. The temporary order doesn’t include any restrictions on law enforcement or immigration enforcement activity.
Williams indicated she will make a more permanent decision before the temporary restraining order expires on August 21.
Some detainees are held without charges or access to counsel, lawsuit says
The ACLU, the US Immigration Law Counsel, Florida Keys Immigration and others filed a lawsuit that “challenges the government’s attempts to prevent people detained in civil immigration custody at Alligator Alcatraz from communicating with legal counsel and from filing motions with the immigration court that could result in their release from detention,” the complaint states.
“Defendants in this case have blocked detainees held at the facility from access to legal counsel. No protocols exist at this facility for providing standard means of confidential attorney-client communication, such as in-person attorney visitation and phone or video calls that are available at any other detention facility, jail, or prison.”
The lawsuit names Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other officials as defendants in the lawsuit.
A federal judge gave the state until late September to prepare arguments against an effort to get the civil rights litigation certified as a class action, The Associated Press reported.
‘Indiscriminate witch hunting’
The Florida Immigrant Coalition lambasted “Alligator Alcatraz” and how authorities are filling it.
“They’ve created this capacity issue at detention camps by indiscriminate witch hunting against immigrants,” spokesperson Thomas Kennedy told CNN on Thursday.
“It’s a solution in search of a problem.”
And as the threat of hurricanes looms this season, he said officials don’t have an adequate plan on how the tent city can withstand hurricane forces.
The plan “was just a giant redacted black page,” Kennedy said.
“DeSantis stood at a press conference and said that these tents can withstand a category 2 hurricane when we’ve seen with our own eyes how the site flooded with just a regular summer Florida rain during the first day when Trump was there.”
But Florida Lt. Gov. Jay Collins said his state is leading the way in clamping down on illegal immigration.
“We have partnered with the president of the United States, with the White House, with anybody and everybody who is serious about getting things done and getting illegal immigrants out of our nation and out of our country because that’s what Florida does,” Collins said Thursday.
Florida announces ‘Detention Depot’
Attorney Daniel Karon, who is not involved in the lawsuits but has been following the cases, said the judge “could very well derail the state and federal government and shut down” the “Alligator Alcatraz” facility.
“Both rulings for plaintiffs would shut down the facility and lead to difficult consequences, as these rulings would require the detainees to be rehoused, which would be logistically complicated and expensive,” Karon said, adding that the lawsuits could also potentially thwart state and federal efforts to establish a second immigration detention facility in the state.
DeSantis is doubling down on immigrant detention centers in his state – including the announcement of a new “Detention Depot,” which will hold about 1,300 detainees.
It’ll be located within the Baker Correctional Institution, a temporarily closed state prison about 45 miles west of Jacksonville near Osceola National Forest.
“The reason of this is not to just house people indefinitely. We want to process, stage and then return illegal aliens to their home country,” DeSantis said.
The facility will likely be ready in about two to three weeks, Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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