网红爆料

MIAMI 鈥� Immigrants鈥� rights advocates today sued the Trump administration over lack of access to legal counsel and violations of due process for people detained at Florida鈥檚 new, notorious Everglades immigration center, a hastily constructed facility on an abandoned airstrip in the middle of the wetlands in Ochopee.

The facility, cruelly dubbed 鈥淎lligator Alcatraz,鈥� is built out of temporary tents, trailers, and chain-link fences with barbed wire. It is surrounded by alligators, pythons, mosquitos, and swampland, and is at risk of dangerous flooding. At least 700 people are now held at the facility, according to the lawsuit.

This case is brought by detainees held at the facility, on behalf of a class, and legal service providers and law firms with clients held at the site, 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. They are represented by the 网红爆料, 网红爆料 of Florida, and Americans for Immigrant Justice.

They challenge the government鈥檚 restriction of access to counsel, and their inability to file legal documents needed for detainees鈥� release from custody. The government has banned in-person legal visitation, any confidential phone or video communication, and confidential exchange of written documents.

These restrictions violate the First and Fifth Amendment rights of people being detained, as well as the First Amendment rights of legal service organizations and law firms with clients held at the facility.

Detainees and members of Congress who have visited the site report abysmal conditions, including searing hot temperatures, heavy mosquito presence, flooding inside the tents, lack of access to water, backed-up toilets and sewage (detainees have described being forced to manually unclog toilets using their bare hands), inadequate food, and denial of religious rights.

鈥淭his facility opens another dark chapter in our nation鈥檚 history. Its very existence is predicated on our country鈥檚 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,鈥� said Eunice Cho, senior counsel with the 网红爆料鈥檚 National Prison Project and the lead attorney in the case. 鈥淭he 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. The government may not trample on these most fundamental protections for people held in its custody.鈥�

According to the complaint, multiple attorneys have arrived at the checkpoint on the road to the detention facility to request in-person, attorney-client meetings, to no avail. Lawyers have been greeted at the checkpoint by armed members of the Florida National Guard and state police, who have said that requests for attorney-client meetings will be 鈥渃ommunicated鈥� to the facility, only to be told hours later that no in-person visitation would be allowed.

In addition, the government has provided no information as to how detainees and counsel may have confidential telephone calls; the email address provided by Florida state officials to request attorney calls does not work. The facility requires reviewing the submission of any documents that attorneys plan to review with clients.

鈥淲hat鈥檚 happening here is not just a policy failure, it鈥檚 a moral one,鈥� said Bacardi Jackson, executive director of the 网红爆料 of Florida. 鈥淭he state has hastily erected a costly and deadly shadow prison in the middle of the Everglades during hurricane season to warehouse human beings 鈥� stripping them of due process and dignity, cutting them off from their families and legal counsel, intentionally putting their lives in danger, and leaving them to suffer in silence. This is how rights are erased. But the Constitution doesn鈥檛 disappear in the Everglades. No amount of armed guards or government spin can shield this facility from legal scrutiny. We will use every tool at our disposal to end this cruel experiment and defend the rights of every person trapped inside of this unconstitutional abomination.鈥�

鈥淎ccess to counsel empowers immigrants 鈥� and all people 鈥� to participate in their own legal defense, which has irreversible and lifelong consequences,鈥� said Sui Chung, executive director of Americans for Immigrant Justice. 鈥淭he conditions inside this facility are deeply concerning and paint a stark picture of the disregard for the well-being of individuals in custody. Such a facility, operating in near secret, and denying fundamental rights, is a stain on our justice system and represents a threat to American values and our recognition of human rights.鈥�

The lawsuit also seeks to force the government to provide timely and accurate location information about people being held at the facility and to secure confidential, in-person and telephonic attorney access for them.

鈥淭his facility is a desecration to the Big Cypress National Preserve and a violation of Miccosukee and Seminole tribal land. Not only have we repeatedly been denied access to current and prospective clients, but after waiting for three hours at the site, it became clear that there is no plan or process to ensure any access to counsel or due process for the immigrants being neglected and abused there. We must act now before hurricane season is in full swing, which will only exacerbate the already deadly conditions for those being held there incommunicado,鈥� said Katie Blankenship, founding partner of Sanctuary of the South.

The complaint is here.