‘Alligator Alcatraz’ detainees held without charges, barred from legal access, lawyers say

Civil rights lawyers seeking a temporary restraining order against an immigration detention centre in the Florida Everglades say that “Alligator Alcatraz” detainees have been barred from meeting lawyers, are being held without any charges and that a federal immigration court has cancelled bond hearings.

The immigration lawyers argued on Monday during a virtual hearing that the detainees’ constitutional rights were being violated and that 100 detainees already had been deported from “Alligator Alcatraz”.

Lawyers who have shown up for bond hearings for “Alligator Alcatraz” detainees have been told that the immigration court does not have jurisdiction over their clients. The civil rights lawyers have demanded that federal and state officials identify an immigration court that has jurisdiction over the detainees so it can start accepting petitions for bond.

“This is an emergency situation,” Eunice Cho, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, said during the hearing in federal court in Miami. “Officers at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ are going around trying to force people to sign deportation orders without the ability to speak to counsel.”

But Nicholas Meros, a lawyer representing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, said the situation had evolved since the civil rights groups’ lawsuit was filed on July 16. Video-conference rooms had been set up so detainees can talk to lawyers, and in-person meetings between detainees and lawyers had started.

“There have been a number of facts that have changed,” Meros said during Monday’s hearing

US District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz, an appointee of US President Donald Trump, did not make an immediate ruling. He asked the civil rights lawyers to refile their complaint to consolidate their pleadings as a request for a preliminary injunction and he set a briefing schedule that will end with an in-person court hearing on August 18.