The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other groups are suing over due process violations and deprivation of legal counsel at Alligator Alcatraz, an immigrant detainment facility in Florida.
The case, filed in the Southern District of Florida, lists as defendants the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Director of Emergency Management Kevin Guthrie
The ACLU, ACLU of Florida and Americans for Immigrant Justice are working with detainees and other groups representing them, including Florida Keys Immigration, Sanctuary of the South, U.S. Immigration Law Counsel, Victoria Slatton of Sanabria & Associates, and the Law Offices of Catherine Perez, PLLC.
The plaintiffs (Michael Borrego Fernandez, J.M.C. and E.R.) allege that lawyers have been frustrated in their attempts to meet with clients on site, and their clients have been thwarted in their attempts to file motions that could lead to their release from the extraordinary ad hoc prison located on the edge of the Everglades.
The suit says attempts to phone the facility have proven fruitless, while an email provided to plaintiff lawyers allegedly leads to bounced back messages.
Fernandez alleges, per the complaint, that brutality runs rampant and that “detained people were told that they are only allowed one meal a day (and given only minutes to eat), are not permitted daily showers, and are otherwise kept around the clock in a cage inside a tent.” After an episode that led to “profuse bleeding,” he says he was hospitalized, operated on, and returned to the facility, but was denied antibiotics that were prescribed, and infection with pus ensued.
E.R., apprehended at a traffic stop, says he is locked up with 32 other men in a plastic tent, sharing three toilets and restricted to calls lasting roughly five minutes that do not allow for confidential communication.
Plaintiff lawyers are outraged.
“This facility opens another dark chapter in our nation’s history. Its very existence is predicated on our country’s basest impulses and shows the danger of unchecked governmental authority when combined with unbridled hate. It represents an attack on common decency, and in this case, its treatment of detained people is also unlawful,” said Eunice Cho, senior counsel with the ACLU’s National Prison Project.
DeSantis has quipped that the facility is not the Four Seasons, a ritzy hotel chain with abundant amenities and five-star service.
Guthrie has dismissed space concerns, saying inmates have much more room than do people in state-run hurricane shelters.
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