Alligator Alcatraz civil rights groups

By Churchill Ndonwie
Miami Herald

(Miami Herald) — In another effort to shut down Alligator Alcatraz, civil rights groups say the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis is unlawfully detaining individuals at the facility and have asked a federal judge in Fort Myers to bar the state from holding detainees at the Everglades facility.

In a preliminary injunction request filed this week, the lawyers are asking U.S. District Judge Kyle C. Dudek of the Middle District of Florida to issue an order that would stop the state from holding detainees at the controversial site. In a lawsuit filed in August on behalf of detainees, the American Civil Liberties Union argued the state lacks the authority to carry out immigration detention. They say that responsibility belongs to the federal government.

“Hundreds of people are being held with no legal authority, subject to a host of problems that immigration detainees do not typically face. Congress required federal control over detention and rigorous training precisely to avoid these kinds of problems,” the lawyers stated in the preliminary injunction request. “The Court should enjoin further detention at this facility.”

The DeSantis administration has consistently claimed that its agreements with the federal government on immigration, known as 287(g), provide it with the legal authority to keep migrants at the temporary detention site in the middle of the Everglades wetlands. The program is part of a federal statute known as 1357(g), which enables state and local governments to assist the federal government with specific immigration tasks.

“Under Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Florida has led the rest of the nation for 287(g) partnerships with 327 agreements in place — a 577% increase since Jan. 20,” a Department of Homeland Security press release stated on Tuesday.

The civil rights lawyers disagree that the agreement gives the state authority to operate an immigration detention facility. In their request to the judge, they argue that Florida is the first state to use the federal statute to detain migrants at a facility fully operated by the state. They also pointed out that the site is being managed by contractors hired by the state, not by state law enforcement agencies, and that there is no agreement between the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which oversees operations at the facility, and the federal government.

“The facility is run and staffed by private contractors who are not and cannot be deputized under the statute. Section 1357(g) only provides authority to an ‘employee of the State.’ And it does not allow deputized state officers to sub-delegate their authority to non-deputized individuals—again, something no state officer has ever tried before,” the lawyers stated.

The request by the civil rights lawyers is yet another attempt to shut down the site. In August, a federal judge barred the state and federal governments from bringing new detainees to the facility, effectively shuttering it within 60 days. The decision was part of another lawsuit brought by environmental groups, who accused the state and federal governments of skirting federal environmental laws when they established the site.

The decision was quickly overturned by the Atlanta-based Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which agreed with the states’ argument that it did not have to follow federal environmental laws. The argument on the merits of the appeal is still being deliberated.

Since its opening in July, the controversial site has been mired in multiple legal challenges regarding its conditions and operations. In another lawsuit, lawyers argue that the First Amendment rights of detainees are being violated because attorneys face challenges in meeting with their clients at the site.

The site also gave precedent for other states to establish their own state-run immigration detention facilities, supporting the Trump administration’s widespread deportation efforts.

The state has 21 days to respond to the argument laid out by the civil rights lawyers.

In the meantime, the lawyers claim that detainees being held at Alligator Alcatraz face “irreparable harm.

“Detention at the facility is also impairing many class members’ immigration cases and forcing them to live in unsafe and unsanitary conditions.”