‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Detainees Say in New Lawsuit They’re Being Denied Access to Their Attorneys
Detainees at Florida’s new immigrant detention camp in the Everglades and several legal aid groups filed a class-action lawsuit yesterday challenging the lack of legal access at the isolated prison.
Four current detainees at the camps—as well as Florida Keys Immigration, Sanctuary of the South (SOS), U.S. Immigration Law Counsel, the Law Offices of Catherine Perez, and attorney Victoria Slatton on behalf of another detainee—allege in a federal civil rights lawsuit filed in the Southern District of Florida that they can’t schedule attorney-client meetings or confidential phone calls, violating their First Amendment and due process rights.
In addition, the lawsuit says that the unclear jurisdictional status of the detention camp has “made it virtually impossible for detainees, or their counsel, to file documents required to contest their detention with the immigration court.”
“No instruction exists as to which immigration courts have been designated for submission of motions for bond redetermination for people detained at Alligator Alcatraz,” the lawsuit says. “As a result, detainees held at Alligator Alcatraz effectively have no way to contest their detention.”
The lawsuit is seeking a judge’s order to force the Everglades detention center, which Florida officials have dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” to provide confidential in-person and telephone meetings. The plaintiffs are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Americans for Immigrant Justice.
“The U.S. Constitution does not allow the government to simply lock people away without any ability to communicate with counsel or to petition the court for release from custody,” Eunice Cho, senior counsel with the ACLU’s National Prison Project and the lead attorney in the case, said in a press release. “The government may not trample on these most fundamental protection
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