Fort Myers, Florida – The former detainees plan to testify on Wednesday about conditions in the prison Immigration detention center In the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” a federal judge is considering during a two-day hearing whether they are getting adequate access to the legal system.
Civil rights attorneys representing the detainees were seeking a temporary injunction from U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell in Fort Myers that would ensure detainees at the state-run Everglades facility have the same access to their attorneys as they do in federally run detention centers. The Everglades facility was built last summer on a remote airstrip by the administration of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The detainees’ lawsuit alleges that their First Amendment rights are being violated. They say their lawyers must schedule a visit three days in advance, unlike other immigration detention facilities where lawyers can only come during visiting hours; that detainees are often transferred to other facilities after their lawyer schedules an appointment to see them; The delay in scheduling was so long that detainees were unable to meet with lawyers before key deadlines.
“Access to counsel at Alligator Alcatraz is substantially more restricted than at other immigration facilities and is inconsistent with the requirements imposed by ICE in detention facilities,” the civil rights attorneys wrote in their request for an injunction.
State officials charged in the lawsuit denied restricting detainees’ access to their lawyers, and said any protocols were in place for security reasons and to ensure there was sufficient staffing. Federal officials, who are also defendants, said no First Amendment rights were violated.
“Furthermore, any Alligator Alcatraz policy regarding communications between counsel and detainee is valid as long as it reasonably relates to a legitimate criminal interest,” they wrote.
Among those expected to testify Wednesday was Juan Lopez Vega, deputy director of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations Field Office in Miami, who tried unsuccessfully to have a subpoena forced to appear in court Wednesday.
The access to legal system case was one of three federal lawsuits challenging practices at the immigration detention center. Another lawsuit filed by detainees in federal court in Fort Myers claimed that immigration was a federal issue, and that Florida agencies and private contractors hired by the state did not have the authority to operate the facility under federal law. That lawsuit ended earlier this month after the detained immigrant who filed the case agreed to be removed from the United States.
In the third lawsuit, it was filed by a federal judge in Miami last summer I ordered the facility to scale back operations over two months because officials failed to conduct an environmental impact review of the detention center. But an appeals court panel put that decision on hold for now, allowing the facility to remain open.
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